WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) —- Representative Charles Rangel’s tenure as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee will be shaped by the legacies of two predecessors: Illinois Democrat Dan Rostenkowski and retiring California Republican Bill Thomas.Rangel, a New York Democrat, is slated to take over as head of the tax-writing panel with Democrats in control of the House. He said he would build legislative coalitions as Rostenkowski did when Congress overhauled the tax code in 1986 and vowed to heal rifts that were exacerbated by Thomas’s partisanship.

In an interview, Rangel, 76, was at pains to show that he wouldn’t be as partisan as his record and rhetoric have suggested.

One of his first acts as chairman will be to invite Republican lawmakers and members of the Bush administration to a retreat, he said.

The aim would be to “create a sense of confidence in each other that we could talk about meaningful decisions without fear that it would have political repercussions that we had sold out our parties”, he said.

Building such bridges may ease passage of some trade agreements and tax cuts such as a permanent research credit for businesses or repealing the alternative minimum tax. It may be tougher to reach bipartisan agreement on securing Social Security’s long-term funding or extending President George W. Bush’s first-term tax cuts beyond 2010.

The first bill he would push through “would be the easiest darn thing we can get, maybe making permanent the research and development extender”, he said.

“But it has to be symbolic so that we can send a message to the rest of the House that we have a history before DeLay and Thomas of working together.”

Rangel blames California’s Thomas and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican who resigned this year, for a breakdown in decorum and comity on the committee. In one incident in 2003, Thomas asked the Capitol Police to evict Rangel and the panel’s other Democrats from a committee room.

Rangel cites Rostenkowski, an Illinois Democrat who was defeated in 1994, as a model of bipartisanship. Rostenkowski’s skill at building trust with Republicans such as former President Ronald Reagan and then-Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bob Packwood of Oregon proved critical to the overhaul of the tax code in 1986, he said.

Rangel said he wants to build bipartisan legislation on his “great relationship” with Iowa Republican Charles Grassley, who would likely lead the minority on the Senate Finance Committee.

“Chuck Grassley is my buddy; I love corn,” Rangel said in a September interview, referring to Grassley’s occupation as a farmer. Grassley also had a strained relationship with Thomas. The tension between the two Republicans reached a boiling point in August, when Grassley said Thomas had betrayed him in negotiations on several tax measures.

Told of the plan to hold bipartisan retreats, Thomas said he had once proposed the same idea and had been rebuffed by Rangel, who sent him a “very short letter” that said no Democrat would attend. “It’s interesting that Charlie Rangel says he’d like to do it,” Thomas said in an interview.

Republicans including Vice President Dick Cheney accused Rangel of planning tax increases after he said in an interview with Bloomberg News on September 20 that he “cannot think of one” of Bush’s tax cuts that merits renewal. That acrimony peaked on October 30, when Cheney told Fox News Channel that “Charlie doesn’t understand how the economy works” and Rangel responded by calling Cheney a “son of a bitch”.

“I was a little taken aback at being singled out by the vice president,” Rangel said. “He should be wanting to work with us.”

Rangel said his priority after securing an early legislative victory that restores bipartisanship would be to steer the panel toward solving the growing problem of the alternative minimum tax, which if left unchecked will impose up to $1.35 trillion in additional taxes on 45 million households over the next decade.

Fixing the minimum tax would widen the federal budget if other taxes aren’t raised or spending reduced. As a result, some of Bush’s tax cuts may have to be reconsidered, Rangel said.

“It’s a very costly item to repair and it’s going to take a lot of courage to decide where are you going to get the money if you intend to do it,” Rangel said.

Still, he said, the minimum tax “is the one item that both parties have to agree that it was never intended to fall to the wrong people and we have to get rid of it”.

A former prosecutor who received a Purple Heart during the Korean War, Rangel has spent much of his congressional career trying to help minorities and the poor with tax breaks such as the low-income tax housing credit and incentives for companies that hire welfare recipients. He also has championed trade agreements that reduce tariffs on African and Caribbean exports.