TALLAHASSEE -- In an peace offering, incoming Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater on Thursday named his former rival Miami Sen. Alex Villalobos to the powerful post of Senate rules chairman.

Atwater, a North Palm Beach Republican whose district extends into North Broward, will be sworn in next week for the two-year term as Senate president. It was the job that Villalobos had been selected for when his fellow senators designated him in 2004 to be Senate president in 2008-10.

But a series of votes by Villalobos that angered former Gov. Jeb Bush and other senators put Villalobos in the doghouse, and Atwater was recruited in 2006 to snatch the job away from him.

In announcing the appointment Thursday, Atwater commended Villalobos ''for his intellectual and disciplined legal mind'' and for his ''tradition of working in a bipartisan fashion.'' Villalobos has been chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee for the past two years.

''His integrity and dignity will ensure that the institution of the Senate is protected,'' Atwater said.

Villalobos, a lawyer who served in the House from 1992 to 2000 before he was elected to the Senate, faced his first election challenge in 2006 when Bush backers recruited and supported former Miami-Dade School Board member Frank Bolaños to run against him. Villalobos won.

In the Senate, Villalobos never lost the support of a group of veteran senators who often formed coalitions with him to block legislation he opposed, such as expanding school vouchers, weakening class-size legislation and some versions of the constitutional amendments on property taxes, measures that were supported by Senate President Ken Pruitt.

The appointment of Villalobos to the Senate's second-most-powerful job is not only a fence-mending move by both Atwater and Villalobos, it's a magnanimous gesture by Pruitt, the outgoing Senate president.

Pruitt would have been a likely candidate for the powerful Rules chairmanship because of his stature as a former presiding officer. (Pruitt gave the job to former Senate President Jim King two years ago.) But in the interest of Senate decorum, Pruitt stepped aside.

Atwater also named Sen. Mike Fasano of New Port Richey to be his Senate president pro tempore, a largely ceremonial leadership job.

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