Senate rejects Iraq pullout

The Democrat-led Senate yesterday failed to set a spring deadline for withdrawing most U.S. troops from Iraq after a rare all-night debate did not sway Republicans united behind giving President Bush’s war strategy through September to show progress.

The amendment died 52-47 — falling shy of the 60 needed to advance it to a simple-majority vote. Democrats’ months-long push to attract support to end the war garnered one new Republican, Sen. Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, who co-sponsored the bill last week.

“Last night’s theatrics accomplished nothing,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. “We could have had the vote on the [amendment] without any of this fanfare. And that’s really all it amounted to: sound and fury.”

The Senate action took place as a Zogby poll released yesterday showed that 14 percent of likely voters rated Congress’ performance as excellent or good — 20 points below Mr. Bush’s 34 percent and the lowest ever recorded by the pollster.

Senate Democratic leaders criticized Republicans for filibustering and immediately pulled from consideration the underlying bill that calls for increasing both the pay for troops and the size of the Army and Marines.

“At the end of this debate, we’re all a little bit weary, but we’re one vote closer to ending this war,” said Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat. “Many senators who’ve gone home and said they’re opposed to the war voted to continue the war today. They’ll have to answer to the voters.”

Three other Republicans — Sens. Gordon H. Smith of Oregon and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, critics of the war, and Susan Collins of Maine — voted with 47 Democrats. Miss Collins said she supported providing an up-or-down vote on the measure but did not support the legislation.

Forty-five Republicans voted against it, along with Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid became the lone Democrat to vote against it when he switched his vote in a procedure that protects his right to reintroduce the measure.

The White House panned the overnight exercise called by Mr. Reid to portray Republicans as out of touch with a growing number of Americans opposed to the war.

“I’m not sure a whole lot was accomplished by it,” said spokesman Tony Snow, who added he expects Republicans to continue to block anti-war efforts before the next Iraq report in September by Gen. David H. Petraeus.

Although more Republicans, including prominent senators such as John W. Warner of Virginia, are speaking out against the White House’s policy, few are willing to vote against Mr. Bush, who already has vetoed troop withdrawal legislation once. But Democrats, responding to their anti-war base, vowed to keep applying pressure.

“We believe that with time, when we come back to this bill as soon as we possibly can, that we’re going to pick up even more support when the American people see who has voted to change course and who did not,” said Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat who authored the measure.

Added Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat: “We’re not going to stop until we get to 60.”

During the overnight debate, Democratic leaders repeatedly tried to get their Republican counterparts to abandon the 60-vote threshold. Republicans said it is standard for major issues.

Republicans say troop-withdrawal legislation encroaches on the president’s power to wage the war and that the generals — not Congress — should be making decisions about troop levels.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who led the Republicans during the debate, said repeatedly that the 30,000 surge in troops carrying out Mr. Bush’s new strategy has just been completed and must be given at least until September, and possibly beyond.

The measure by Mr. Levin and Sen. Jack Reed, Rhode Island Democrat, requires most combat troops to leave Iraq by April 30. It leaves an unspecified number of troops to protect U.S. and coalition interests, train Iraqi security forces and conduct counterterrorism operations.

Shortly after yesterday’s vote, Mr. Reid pulled the defense authorization bill from the floor in an attempt to secure more Republican support for the Levin-Reed amendment. He declined to say when he would reintroduce the bill, a move that angered Republican leaders.

“We are abandoning the men and women in the military if we don’t take this bill back up and pass it,” Mr. McCain said.

Mr. Reid’s decision to set-aside the bill also freezes debate on other amendments intended to change the president’s Iraq strategy, including a measure proposed by two Republican senators that calls on Mr. Bush to create a new plan for U.S. troops in Iraq by mid-October.

The proposal by Mr. Warner and Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana requests a blueprint for drawing down or redeploying U.S. forces in Iraq by Dec. 31. It also asks the administration to again seek congressional authorization for the war.

Another measure, proposed by Sens. Ken Salazar, Colorado Democrat, and Lamar Alexander, Tennessee Republican, would make the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group released late last year the basis for future U.S. strategy in Iraq.