Obama likely to get the support of five Republicansfor his policies

Washington, Jan.21 (ANI): Though President Barack Obama's outreach to Republicans may be generating goodwill on the other side of the aisle, his honeymoon with the GOP is likely to be short-lived.

However, there are some Republicans who have a less adversarial relationship with the new administration. According to Politico, there are at least five GOP leaders who are expected to work closely with the White House.

Here is Politico's list of the five Republicans most likely to embrace Obama:

1.Senator John McCain (Arizona)

As curious as it sounds, Obama's rival for the presidency could end up being a key ally.

On issue after issue, from campaign finance to HMO regulation to immigration reform, McCain has shown a willingness to reach across the aisle - a habit that hasn't endeared him to his own party.

Indeed, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) said he believes that McCain is prepared to launch a national rehabilitation campaign that will lead him to a strong alliance with Obama.

"I believe Obama has an ace in the hole among Senate Republicans. This unlikely ace can deliver not only the GOP moderates needed to break a filibuster but also the stamp of bipartisanship: the 2008 GOP standard-bearer, John McCain," Santorum recently wrote in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

2. Senator Richard Dick' Lugar (Indiana)

Few Republicans can claim a closer personal relationship with Obama than the senior senator from Indiana. Upon arriving in the Senate, Obama sought out Lugar as a mentor when both men served on the Foreign Relations Committee.

To prove his bipartisan bona fides on the campaign trail, Obama regularly cited his work on Lugar's signature Nunn-Lugar nuclear nonproliferation bill.

As part of their campaign to pass nuclear nonproliferation legislation, the two traveled together to Russia and Ukraine in 2005 to examine those countries' stockpiles of conventional weapons.

Lugar, rumored to be a potential secretary of state in the Obama administration, was even named as an honorary co-chairman of the inaugural committee. "When you've got a president who's trying to send a signal that he's trying to achieve bipartisan solutions, it makes sense that Lugar's going to play a very significant role in that," said Indiana political analyst Brian Howey.

3. Representative Mark Kirk (Illinois)

As he mulls a run for Obama's old Senate seat in 2010, Kirk knows he won't get an endorsement from the president-elect. Still, whether he runs for reelection to the House or for the Senate, political imperatives demand that he work productively with the Obama administration.

Kirk's House district delivered 61 percent of the vote to Obama, giving him a strong incentive to play nice with the new president.

One of the leading centrists in the House - and one who has repeatedly won reelection in a Democratic-leaning district by emphasizing his independence from his national party - Kirk is already inclined to work across the aisle.

4. Senator George Voinovich (Ohio)

Despite calling Obama a "socialist" in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, Voinovich may find himself agreeing with the president-elect more often than not during his final two years in the Senate.

The Ohio senator, who announced he would retire in 2010, has often been a thorn in the GOP's side, for opposing Republican-backed tax cuts and for his high-profile opposition to John Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations.

Now that Voinovich is in the final stage of a political career that spans more than 40 years, he will be completely liberated from pressures to conform to his party's line.

Since his Jan. 12 retirement announcement, Voinovich has already voted with Obama on releasing the second round of bailout money, joining only five other Senate Republicans in support of the legislation. Despite his reputation as a fiscal hawk, Voinovich has said he is open to supporting Obama's proposed stimulus package.

5. Senator Susan Collins (Maine)

Fresh off an election victory in which she touted her record of working across party lines, Collins has a chance to prove it.

She is one of the two most liberal Republican senators, according to 2007 National Journal ratings - the other is her Maine colleague, Sen. Olympia Snowe. And with Democrats just shy of the 60 seats necessary to block GOP filibusters, Collins will be one of the first Republicans Obama will look toward to break logjams.

She has already indicated that she's eager to work with the new president on climate change and health care reform, and has chatted with Obama's congressional budget adviser, Peter Orszag, about her legislative priorities. (ANI)