Senate stands up on Iraq policy

We're not there yet, but it's progress. The elected "leaders" are starting to move to get in front of their "followers," but are still behind the public on this issue.

The New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 - The Senate signaled its growing unease with the war in Iraq today, voting overwhelmingly to demand regular reports from the White House on the course of the conflict and on the progress that Iraqi forces are making in securing their own country.

The vote, 79 to 19, came on an amendment to a spending bill that ultimately passed without opposition. The bipartisan support for the amendment sponsored by Senator John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican who heads the Armed Services Committee, reflected anxiety among Republicans as well as Democrats.

Mr. Warner said afterward that he was "very grateful" for the wide backing of his amendment, which he called "forward looking" and distinctly different from a Democratic alternative that many Republicans said would signal that the United States was ready to "cut and run" from the battlefield.

The message that Iraqis should take from the Senate action, Mr. Warner said, is that "we have stood with you, we have done our part," and now it is time for them to do theirs. He said 2006 would be a pivotal year for the campaign in Iraq.

Minutes before endorsing Mr. Warner's amendment, the Senate voted, 58 to 40, against a measure offered by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, to demand that President Bush set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

"We need to have 2006 be a year of transition," Mr. Levin said as he declared that with his own amendment defeated, he would back the one offered by his Republican colleague. "I support the Warner amendment as the second-best approach," he said.

Both Wisconsin Senators, Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, voted for the Levin amendment, which got 40 votes. Only one Republican, Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island, voted in favor. Five Democrats joined with most Republicans in opposing it: Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, Bill Nelson of Florida, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.