WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush has shown more willingness to change over the past few weeks than he did in his first six years in office, the top Democrat in the Senate said Friday.

"We found the president in his first six years to be pretty stubborn, and we found the last few weeks as much change as has been in the first six years," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada.

The transfer of power in both houses of Congress to the Democrats has changed the dynamics for the president.

Speaking to reporters at the National Press Club, Reid said Bush has "backed off from the domestic spying" and "acknowledged many mistakes in Iraq." And Reid referred to "rumblings from the White House" that Bush's State of the Union address on Tuesday may include a dramatic new plan for energy independence and "even global warming."

The Bush administration does not use the term "domestic spying" to refer to warrant less wiretapping of phone calls between people in the United States and suspected terrorists overseas. But this week the administration agreed to put the effort under a federal court set up under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

And while Bush, in a recent address to the nation, did acknowledge errors in Iraq, the administration has not characterized it as "many mistakes."

The White House has not given specific indications of what Bush will say in his State of the Union address, but the president is expected to discuss energy independence and the environment.