While President Clinton promises a bridge to the 21st century wide enough for all Americans to cross, his coattails Tuesday night were not even wide enough for his own party.

Democratic congressional candidates nationwide were hoping that the electoral rout in Tuesday's presidential election could generate the support needed to steal control of the Senate and the House of Representatives away from the Republicans.

It was not to be.

While the Democrats made modest gains in the House, the GOP managed to retain its majority, while actually tightening its grip in the Senate by picking up two additional seats.

The big question is what two more years of divided government will mean to Clinton's second term.

In his first term, ironically, division spelled success.

When his own party controlled ,the House in the first two years of his presidency, Clinton tried to push a massive health care overhaul through the Congress. Many voters viewed the effort as a disguised liberal strategy to tax, spend and expand.

Voters punished Clinton, ending four decades of Democratic control in the Republican Revolution of 1994.

But for the president, it was all uphill from there.

In his subsequent battles with House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) over Medicare and social security cuts and the closure of the federal government, many voters sided with Clinton, seeing him as a grand compromiser.

Now, as Clinton searches to define an agenda for the second term, he is making cooperation his centerpiece.

"It is time to put politics aside and join together to get the job done for America's future," Clinton said in his victory speech in Little Rock, Ark. Yesterday morning. "We have work to do. That is what the election was all about."

Clinton has positioned himself as a moderate on many issues, most notably welfare. Campaign speeches in recent weeks suggest Clinton is poised to tackle issues again as an effective compromiser. He appears wary of traditional liberal voices in his own party and ready to stand up to GOP radicals who challenge him.

However, there is no reason to believe Clinton will be the best of friends with congressional leaders through a second term.

A major reason Democrats were thirsty for a congressional takeover was their desire to put the Whitewater investigation, accusations of illegal campaign funding practices and other scandals behind the president.

Now, with Republicans still serving as committee chairs, scandals and probes into Clinton's character and ethics remain potential ammunition for the GOP.

"The Republicans tried to bring [scandals] up and it failed politically," said Clinton-Gore campaign spokesperson Douglas Hattaway Tuesday. "Millions of dollars were spent on showboat hearings that accomplished nothing."

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said yesterday the GOP will investigate accusations of illegal financial contributions to the Democrats.

"We have a responsibility in a variety of ways to take a look at what appears to be wrongdoing," he said.

Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.), who chaired the Senate panel that probed into Clinton's Whitewater dealings, said no more Whitewater hearings are planned for the time being.

"We should leave that in the hands of the special prosecutor," he said.

Gingrich said congressional Republicans are ready to work with a cooperative Clinton on cutting taxes and limiting the size of the government.

However, some voters see the sudden GOP kindness toward Clinton as an election-time smoke screen.

"It's going to hit [the president]," said Dave Sansone, a resident of Acton, Mass., as he savored Clinton's victory at the Boston Sheraton Tuesday night. "There is a good chance he'll be impeached in two years.