Washington ? If President Bush was hoping in his State of the Union address to win Democratic support for his second-term agenda — including his plan for overhauling Social Security — he appeared to have made little progress.

Congressional Democrats repeatedly erupted into cries of “No!” whenever Bush suggested that the Social Security system was bankrupt. They sat stonily when he discussed allowing younger workers to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in private investment accounts.

And when the speech was over, they attacked him for failing to offer a “clear plan” for ending the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

“I believe we need to begin to talk about an exit strategy, and I didn’t hear that tonight,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas.

Democrats have shown in recent weeks that they have no intention of backing off on challenging Bush — and perhaps even taking a more aggressive posture toward him — after the party’s losses in last fall’s elections.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, joined by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, delivered a televised response to Bush’s speech. Reid pledged to work with the president “when we believe the president is on the right track. But when he gets off track, we will be there to hold him accountable.”

So far, Democrats have put up fights over Bush’s nominations of national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to be secretary of State and White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales to be attorney general, though Rice won confirmation in the Republican-controlled Senate and Gonzales is expected to be confirmed today.

Reid has declared that no Senate Democrat will back Bush’s proposal for Social Security investment accounts. And Democrats have signaled they will continue to oppose the confirmation of judicial nominees whom they regard as too conservative. Ten of the president’s 34 appellate court nominations, for example, were blocked by Democratic filibusters during the last congressional session.

“Beyond any doubt, the Democrats are signaling that they intend to contest President Bush on big issues, especially Social Security and Iraq,” said Don Kettl, a University of Pennsylvania political scientist.

Former Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., goes over notes as President Bush prepares to give his State of the Union address. To Kerry's right are Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. Sharp bipartisan battles could shape up in Congress this year.

“On Social Security, they smell blood in the water and will circle like sharks, intent on nipping away pieces of Bush’s plan and hoping to take it down,” he said. “With even fellow Republicans nervous about the plan, they think they can stop his signature second-term plan. And if they can do that, they believe they can send him quacking quickly back to Crawford as a lame duck.”

And while Democrats pledge to hold Bush accountable, Kettl added, “it’s not clear they have the strategy or the muscle to do so.”

Reid likened Bush’s speech to the movie “Groundhog Day” — “the same old ideology that we’ve heard before, over and over again.”

And Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California said, “When it came to specifics of a domestic program, they just weren’t there.”