WASHINGTON -- Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart will return to the Capitol in January victorious after their first significant reelection challenges -- but also facing a new reality as members of a Republican party more marginalized than before.

And the Miami pair who had the ear of President Bush for eight years on U.S-Cuba policy are at odds with President-elect Barack Obama, who has made it clear he'd like to lift some of the hard-line sanctions the brothers backed.

In interviews in their congressional offices, however, both Republicans maintained that they still see opportunities to pursue their agendas -- and help their party.

''It's happened before and we've survived,'' said Mario Diaz-Balart, whose challenger, former Miami-Dade Democratic party chief Joe Garcia, came within six points of defeating him. ``You've got to be able to work with both sides, and the reality is that a lot of this stuff doesn't have to be a partisan fight.''

Advocates for relaxing travel and remittance restrictions to Cuba, though, are optimistic that the new Obama administration will move quickly to lift the restrictions that Bush imposed in 2004, partly at the behest of the Diaz-Balarts.

PROMISES ON POLICY

Obama pledged at a Cuban American National Foundation lunch in Miami last May that if elected he would immediately lift the limits on Cuban Americans who want to visit Cuba or send money to relatives on the island. His campaign's Latin America foreign policy advisor, Frank Sanchez, said earlier this month that Obama would act ''within [the] possible and practical bounds of his authority'' to lift the restrictions.

Enacted after a crackdown in Cuba, the restrictions cap travel to the island at once every three years and limit the amount of remittances that can be sent to immediate family members.

''Hopefully, he will take advantage of the opportunity to do what he's said he'll do: engage Cuba diplomatically and make changes at least incrementally to Cuba policy,'' said Jake Colvin, vice president of global trade issues for the National Foreign Trade Council, which advocates for trade with Cuba.

Colvin suggested that Obama's win in Florida creates ``real political space for an incoming administration to try something new on Cuba policy.''

INTERPRETING SIGNALS

Mario Diaz-Balart, however, suggested that the administration should take note of the election results in Miami's three Cuban-American congressional districts: Both Diaz-Balarts and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen easily defeated Democrats who supported lifting the 2004 restrictions.

''When it comes to Cuban Americans, it's pretty clear where they are,'' Diaz-Balart said.

Both Diaz-Balarts noted that the sanctions have had bipartisan appeal, supported by Democrats such as New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

''I've got no false expectations that the administration will be calling me for advice, but they might want to talk to Bob Menendez,'' Mario Diaz-Balart said.

Lincoln Diaz-Balart said he expects Obama to lift the 2004 restrictions -- ''I take him at his word'' -- but he suggested that his side still has the clout to deflect more serious challenges to U.S. policy, such as allowing for increased trade with the island.

''We haven't gone away,'' Diaz-Balart said of lawmakers who back strict sanctions against Cuba. He noted that some legislators who had championed lifting the embargo won't return in 2009, including Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho and Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois.

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