The shift of power in the Senate should cause both parties to start practicing the bipartisanship that President Bush promised during last fall's campaign.

If President Bush had lived up to his campaign promise to be "a uniter, not a divider," Vermont Sen. James Jeffords probably wouldn't have bolted the Republican Party and shifted control of the Senate to the Democrats. In a 50-50 Senate, going out of your way to offend one of your own party's senators is an especially dangerous act of hubris.

The president and other Republican leaders apparently forgot that they held only the most tenuous of majorities in Washington. Because Jeffords, an old-fashioned New England moderate, bucked the president on tax cuts and a few other issues, they retaliated against him in ways large and petty. They opposed Jeffords on two of his priorities: aid for dairy farmers and disabled students. And they made Jeffords the target of several childish snubs. For example, Jeffords, chairman of the Senate committee that oversees education policy, was not invited to a White House ceremony honoring a Vermont schoolteacher as national teacher of the year.

You can bet bipartisanship will be more than lip service for the Bush administration now. With Democrats taking over committee chairmanships and the legislative agenda in the Senate, the White House will have no choice but to work more cooperatively on issues ranging from the budget to the appointment of federal judges.

Jeffords' departure harms the Republican Party in ways that go beyond control of the Senate. Over the past decade, the GOP congressional leadership has become increasingly more conservative and confrontational than Republican voters generally. Sun Belt hardliners such as Trent Lott and Tom DeLay have worked to marginalize more traditional Republicans, mostly from New England and the Midwest, who were not in lockstep with their rigid agenda. Jeffords' defection will make Congress an even lonelier place for the few remaining GOP moderates in the House and Senate.

Senate Democratic leaders now have the burden of showing that they can manage more collegially than their GOP counterparts. Tom Daschle becomes the most powerful voice in his party, and the soft-spoken South Dakotan is likely to wear better with voters than Al Gore, Dick Gephardt and other prominent Democrats who have tried to speak for their fractured party. The shifts in committee chairmanships also should have a generally salutary effect. For example, Jeffords' respected Vermont colleague, Patrick Leahy, stands to take over Judiciary from priggish Orrin Hatch, and New Mexico's Jeff Bingaman is in line to take over Energy and Natural Resources from Alaska's Frank Murkowski, the oil industry's pet senator.

The balance of power in Washington will more accurately reflect the will of the voters as expressed last November. No one needs reminding that Bush lost the popular vote and captured the electoral vote only after the extended agony of Florida's aborted recount. The November vote also gave the Republicans tiny advantages in the House and Senate that left no room for miscalculation.

But miscalculate they did. Failing to shepherd every irreplaceable member of the Senate's flock of 50 Republicans was a strategic blunder of historic proportions.

The White House was able to ram an ill-considered $1.35-trillion tax cut through Congress with only nominal Democratic support. Final approval will come before Memorial Day, and Jeffords did his former Republican colleagues the favor of delaying his switch until the measure is passed. However, future legislative successes will depend on genuine bipartisan cooperation. Issues such as energy, education and the environment should transcend partisan divisions, and Senate Democrats can't afford to be seen as indiscriminately blocking the president's agenda. If the president readjusts his priorities to reflect mainstream opinion, he can continue to win the support of many congressional Democrats and millions of ordinary voters. But if he and his allies continue to act as if they won an imaginary mandate last November, the newly constituted Senate will provide a necessary check. And James Jeffords won't be the last thoughtful moderate to jump off a ship headed the wrong direction.

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