Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama, looking to get his administration off to a fast start when he takes office next week, is drawing fire from members of his own party on Capitol Hill.

Democratic criticism of the stimulus package and the nomination of Leon Panetta as intelligence chief shows lawmakers intend to flex their muscle after eight years of a Bush administration that treated Congress more like employees than a separate branch of government. The disputes may become more frequent when Congress takes up contentious issues such as overhauling health care or cutting the federal budget deficit.

“Don’t you expect for Democrats to act like Republicans,” said House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, the chamber’s No. 3 Democrat. “Democrats will be Democrats.”

Some lawmakers are playing down the early spats.

“This is the legislative process,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat. “Everyone on the Democratic side is really excited about getting to work with these guys and I think we’re off to a great start.”

Still, an assertive Congress may represent a challenge to Obama’s bid for quick action. For his part, Obama, a former Illinois senator whose administration is loaded with Capitol Hill veterans, said he intends to share more power with the legislative branch.

‘Co-Equal Branch’

“One of the things that we’re trying to set a tone of is that, you know, Congress is a co-equal branch of government -- we’re not trying to jam anything down people’s throats,” Obama, 47, said on ABC’s “This Week.”

The tensions have flared on several fronts in recent weeks.

Obama’s choice of Panetta as Central Intelligence Agency director irked Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, head of the Senate panel charged with confirming the nomination. The Intelligence Committee chairwoman said she hadn’t been consulted on the pick and preferred a CIA director with more experience in intelligence. Vice President-elect Joseph Biden apologized, saying he and Obama should have conferred with her.

Days later, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, took aim at reports that Obama is considering naming CNN reporter Sanjay Gupta as surgeon general.

Warning From Reid

In a warning last week to the incoming administration, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made it clear he won’t be taking orders from the newly elected president.

Reid told the newspaper Roll Call last week that “I don’t work for Barack Obama -- I work with him.”

He added, “There’s been large amounts of power during the Republican years ceded to the White House’” and “we’re not going to do that.”

The biggest intraparty dispute so far has been over the stimulus package, with several Senate Democrats saying they doubted Obama’s proposed payroll tax cut and tax breaks for businesses that hire new workers would do much to lift the economy.

Asked about the Senate criticism, Obama said last week, “If people have better ideas on certain provisions, if they say, ‘you know, this is going to work better than that,’ then we welcome that.”

The Obama team has since made changes to the plan in response to the complaints, lawmakers said.

‘Significant Changes’

“There are significant changes already being put in place and being contemplated,” said Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, after meeting with Obama economic advisers Lawrence Summers and Jason Furman for the second time in three days. Among the changes: more tax incentives to boost energy production.

Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Obama plans to ultimately leave many of the plan’s details to lawmakers, saying the president-elect will produce only a general outline, not a draft bill, of his plan.

“Their process is a little different -- they’re not sending a 400-page document,” Schumer said. “They are saying: Here’s the broad outlines. Here are the things we care about, you help us fill in some of the blanks and some of the details.”

Lawmakers describe the early dust-ups as practically inevitable. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Congress was bound to reassert itself after subordinate status under President George W. Bush.

‘The Normal Way’

“This is the normal way, for Congress to be independent,” Frank said. “The aberration was the Republicans, not the Democrats.” He added that if lawmakers didn’t debate Obama’s plans, “you’d write about how we’re a rubber stamp.”

Representative Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Democrat, said the disputes aren’t surprising, given that more than a third of House Democrats were elected during the Bush administration and have never served with a president of their own party.

“It’s our White House, a friendly White House, but we still might not always agree with them -- so how do you deal with that disagreement?” he said. “We’re just having to get used to working with our own administration.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Faler in Washington at bfaler@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 14, 2009 00:01 EST