Senate rejects calls for Iraq withdrawal
WASHINGTON – The Republican-controlled Senate rejected two Democratic measures Thursday calling for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, votes that were less an attempt to legislate than a test of Democratic unity on an issue that could prove decisive in November’s congressional elections and the 2008 presidential race.
An overwhelming majority of the chamber’s Democrats backed a resolution that urged President Bush to start the troop redeployment by the end of this year but that stopped short of setting a deadline for complete withdrawal.
Some Democratic leaders hailed the support for the proposal – designed to signal to Iraqis that they need to assume more control of their country – as an expression of party cohesion.
“When you get 80 percent of the Democrats agreeing on the specifics of a policy, folks, you’ve got a strong consensus of Democrats,” said Sen. Carl Levin, of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee and one of the resolution’s sponsors. “And when that includes everybody that we know of who’s thinking of running for president in the U.S. Senate, that is a very strong statement of consensus among Democrats.”
The measure lost, 60-39, but Levin and his co-sponsor, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., noted that all but six of the Senate’s Democrats voted for it, as did one Republican.
“I think the message that we are sending here is that we want us to succeed in Iraq, but … the time of a blank check (for the administration’s policies) must come to an end,” said Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.
The second withdrawal measure, sponsored by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Russell Feingold, D-Wis., would have required the administration to immediately begin withdrawal and complete it by July of next year. It was soundly defeated, 86-13, with 31 Democrats joining 55 Republicans in voting against it.
“We may have our divisions … and we do disagree with setting a time certain” for final troop withdrawal, said Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., who was among those voting against the Kerry plan but for the Levin-Reed measure. “We may disagree in degree, but we got a plan. The only thing I noticed today, the Republicans are united in supporting a policy thus far that’s been a failure.”
Republicans, as expected, stoutly rebuffed the characterizations of Bush’s Iraq policy as a failure and attacked both Democratic measures as a call for retreat.
After the votes, Vice President Dick Cheney said on CNN, “Absolutely the worst possible thing we could do at this point would be to validate and encourage the terrorists by doing exactly what (the Democrats) want us to do, which is to leave.”
The Republicans welcomed the Senate debate – GOP strategists think discussions of national security and the threat of terrorism work to their party’s benefit.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., pressed that case before Thursday’s votes, saying the spirit of the Democratic proposals was “the spirit of defeatism and surrender. This is not the spirit that made America the great nation it is today.”
With polls showing a majority of the public is dissatisfied with the White House’s handling of the war, Democrats are hoping this discontent will translate into gains in the November elections and give them a majority in one or both houses of Congress.
The six Democrats who resisted pressure from party leaders and voted against both amendments were Sens. Joe Lieberman, of Connecticut; Ben Nelson, of Nebraska; Bill Nelson, of Florida; Mary Landrieu, of Louisiana; Mark Pryor, of Arkansas; and Mark Dayton, of Minnesota.
The sole Republican supporting the Levin-Reed amendment was Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., who represents a heavily Democratic state and is up for re-election this year.