  The SU(2)xU(1) Chern-Simons spin-charge gauge approach developed earlier to
describe the transport properties of the cuprate superconductors in the
``pseudogap'' regime, in particular, the metal-insulator crossover of the
in-plane resistivity, is generalized to the ``strange metal'' phase at higher
temperature/doping. The short-range antiferromagnetic order and the gauge field
fluctuations, which were the key ingredients in the theory for the pseudogap
phase, also play an important role in the present case. The main difference
between these two phases is caused by the existence of an underlying
statistical $\pi$-flux lattice for charge carriers in the former case, whereas
the background flux is absent in the latter case. The Fermi surface then
changes from small ``arcs'' in the pseudogap to a rather large closed line in
the strange metal phase. As a consequence the celebrated linear in T dependence
of the in-plane and out-of-plane resistivity is shown explicitly to recover.
The doping concentration and temperature dependence of theoretically calculated
in-plane and out-of-plane resistivity, spin-relaxation rate and AC conductivity
are compared with experimental data, showing good agreement.
