Senate heads toward vote on Iraq exit
Passage uncertain as veto is threatened
In the face of determined opposition from the Bush administration, the Senate on Wednesday began an impassioned debate over an exit strategy from Iraq, headed toward a vote on a Democratic resolution aimed at a pullout of American combat troops in 2008.
Underscoring the mounting tensions between the Democratic Congress and the White House, administration officials immediately issued a veto threat, even though the measure is considered unlikely to win final passage. The administration's statement denounced the Democratic plan in forceful terms, declaring that it would "embolden our enemies" and "hobble American commanders in the field."
In the House, Democratic leaders scrambled on the eve of a crucial test vote for their own Iraq legislation--a huge emergency spending bill that also includes a timetable for withdrawal in 2008. It is to go before the Appropriations Committee on Thursday and to the floor of the House next week. The White House has vowed to veto that measure as well.
The Senate's long-awaited debate over Iraq, twice blocked last month by Republicans, opened along bitterly partisan lines. But it was also filled with sadness and dismay in both parties about the course of the war.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, acknowledged that "the situation is, indeed, dire," while arguing that it is too important for partisanship. "Political parties don't lose wars," he said. "Nations lose wars and nations suffer the consequences, and those consequences are far graver than a lost election."
Measure sets 2008 deadline
At issue is a Democratic resolution that would set a goal of removing most combat troops from Iraq by March 31, 2008, and declare that the U.S. mission must be redefined to find a political--not a military--solution. Despite the measure's slim prospects for final passage, Democratic strategists hope that it will step up pressure on the administration and Republicans on Capitol Hill to shift course on a war that, many noted, will pass the four-year mark next week.
Republicans described the resolution as an exercise in micromanagement. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, called it "unprecedented in the powers it would arrogate to the Congress in a time of war."
Democrats countered that the resolution provided something the Republicans lacked--an exit strategy. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, said, "To those who say we would micromanage the war I say, isn't it time for somebody to manage the war?"
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Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said he has been trying with little success "to convey to the White House" the need to institute recommendations made by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. "We need to take it down off the shelf and use it as something other than a bookend," he said.
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