War rebuke halted in Senate

Senate Democrats yesterday failed in their bid to move forward with a nonbinding resolution opposing President Bush’s plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq.

The 56-34 roll-call vote was four short of the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture, or to limit debate before a vote. Seven Republicans crossed party lines to vote with Democrats to advance the resolution.

“A majority of the United States Senate is against the escalation in Iraq,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat. “As for the Republicans who chose once again to block further debate and protect President Bush, the American people now know they support the escalation” in the number of troops.

It was Mr. Reid’s second attempt in less than two weeks to push for a vote on the resolution.

Republicans said they had rebuffed an “unfair” attempt by Mr. Reid to prevent a vote on an alternative resolution that would protect funding for the troops in Iraq.

“There is no place for chicanery at a time of war,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican. “Even some of the president’s most strident opponents know that. They know that the only vote that truly matters is a vote on whether to fund the troops.”

The White House yesterday agreed that funding the troops should be a top priority.

“Both houses of Congress within a matter of weeks will conduct binding votes on a matter of cardinal importance for America’s future security and global credibility: whether to fund the president’s supplemental-funding request for our military,” a statement from the White House said. “The president urges both houses to approve his request.”

Mr. Reid said the Senate is “moving on” from trying to pass the nonbinding resolution, which cleared the House on Friday by a vote of 246-182.

He said Democrats will push for further debate on the war by attaching amendments to legislation adopting recommendations from the September 11 commission. That issue will be taken up when the Senate returns Feb. 27 from a weeklong recess.

But Senate Democrats offered no details on how they would try to block Mr. Bush’s troop-surge plan.

House Democratic leaders have outlined a strategy to limit military options by restricting the use of money in a military-appropriations bill they will take up next month.

Republicans call that a “slow-bleed” approach that will cut off funds for the war, and Mr. Reid gave no indication of whether he will pursue the same strategy in the Senate.

Nine Republicans and one Democrat did not vote yesterday. One of those who didn’t vote was Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, a 2008 presidential hopeful.

Mr. McCain, while campaigning in Iowa, told his audience that nonbinding measures are “insulting to the public and the soldiers,” according to the Associated Press.

Story Continues →