Congress aims to send war-funding proposal to Bush by weekend

Antiwar Democrats are fuming, and a few are saying they will vote
against the bill. Democratic leaders said they bowed to reality.

By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times

http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1199918.html

WASHINGTON - Congressional Democratic leaders on Tuesday made it
official: They formally dropped their insistence that the Iraq
war-spending bill include a timeline for U.S. troop withdrawal and
excised billions of dollars in unrelated pork-barrel spending,
clearing the way to end a lengthy standoff with President Bush.

The measure will include benchmarks, or goals, that the Baghdad
government must meet to continue to receive U.S. reconstruction aid,
although the president may waive those requirements if he wishes.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., characterized the decision
as progress in the Democratic drive to bring the U.S. combat role in
Iraq to an end, saying the bill was not a "blank check."

The House and Senate are expected to vote on the approximately $120
billion bill, which funds military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan,
this week before they take a week off for the Memorial Day holiday.

A number of strongly antiwar Democrats are expected to oppose the
measure, so it will need Republican support to pass.

"There has been a lot of tough talk from members of Congress about
wanting to end this war, but it looks like the desire for political
comfort won out over real action," said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis.

Sorely disappointed

Antiwar groups that stood behind the Democrats as they pressed for a
withdrawal also expressed disappointment. "It is remarkable that they
can't stand up to President Bush and his war," said Win Without War
National Co-Chairman Susan Shaer, who called the bill "another step
toward endless war."

But Democratic leaders say they are dealing with the political
realities of having to get money to the troops while lacking the votes
to override a presidential veto. Bush earlier this month vetoed a
war-spending bill that would have compelled him to begin withdrawing
troops no later than Oct. 1, with a goal of completing the pullout by
March.

"We can't pass something without the president's signature, and the
president can't pass something without our agreement," said House
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. "So we can be at a standoff, and go
back and forth with one another, or we can come to an agreement."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., noting that it had been
106 days since the president sent his emergency funding request to
Congress, expressed hope that the war-funding bill, "without a
surrender date," would be sent to the president before Memorial