ShareThisBy LISA MASCARO
Las Vegas Sun
Thursday, May 17, 2007
The Senate's growing impatience with President Bush's Iraq war strategy can be seen not only in the maneuvering by Democratic leader Harry Reid. It is also apparent in the evolving positions of Senate Republicans.
A majority of senators, primarily Republicans, now support a plan that would begin to assert oversight of the war by imposing benchmarks on the Iraqi government and withholding economic development aid if those targets are not met.
The Republican-backed plan won crossover Democrats and offered a modest alternative to the one backed by Reid, which failed because it was considered too extreme for all but 29 Democrats. It called for cutting military funds to ensure troop withdrawal by April 1 2008.
Reid appeared pleased even in defeat. The Democratic plan got twice as many votes as a comparable bill last year, while the Republican legislation agreeing to benchmarks and penalties was the first of its kind.
"Republicans are beginning to realize the current path in Iraq is unsustainable," Reid told reporters after the vote Wednesday. "At least Republicans are now recognizing they've got to give the president something."
Democrats on both sides of the Capitol are chipping away at Republican support for Bush's war strategy and solidifying their own. Last week nearly 40 percent of House members voted to get out of the war, surprising even their leadership. Public opinion is on Democrats' side as polls show most Americans want the war over.
Vote by vote, Democrats are forcing their fellow party members as well as Republicans to choose whether to stand by the Bush administration, and potentially face a voter backlash next year at the polls, or join them in beginning to draw down troops.
Republicans know that every vote their senators take on the war provides campaign fodder for the 2008 election, while drowning out action on other issues. "I would prefer not to talk about Iraq every day," one Republican leadership aide said.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell complained that after 30 votes on Iraq since Democrats took over in January, Congress still has not produced a troop funding bill Bush would sign.
But Democrats led by Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plan even more Iraq votes, a strategy reinforced during daily conference calls, first reported in The New York Times, with a coalition of labor and anti-war groups.
Every morning at 10:30, staff from the Democratic leadership offices is on the line with representatives of nearly a dozen groups.
The congressional officials disclose their strategy, while the groups plot ad campaigns, community protests and other activities in the field, participants say.
One of the groups, Americans United for Change, had radio ads ready before Wednesday's votes. It is trying to pressure Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio to reconsider his position before the next Iraq vote.
Lisa Mascaro can be reached at lisa.mascara(AT)lasvegassun.com. To comment or for more stories visit scrippsnews.com
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Iraq Funding
I think that Republican Sen. George Voinovich is a very honorable man and don't think he is concerned about being re-elected or not. However, I think they are talking with the right Senator. In my opinion from brief news interviews I've seen, he agrees with the Democrats. Perhaps he is just trying to be supportive of his own party but sooner or later he is going to come out against the current direction of the Iraq War.