Facing the inevitable Bush veto on their Iraq funding bill, the Democrats must now decide what their next move will be in planning a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
Despite the ever increasing unpopularity of the war in Iraq, there still remains a deep divide among Democrats regarding the funding of this war and leaving the troops out in the cold.
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash, said that at some point the Democrats will reach their 'come-to-Jesus' point on whether Democrats do, or do not, give the troops the necessary funding required to continue their mission in Iraq.
Rep. McDermott is one of the 218 House members, mostly Democrats, who voted on March 23 to fund the troops, but this bill also contained a clause that would have the troops withdrawn from Iraq by September 2008. McDermott was reluctant to vote for the troop funding bill because he felt the $96 million request for the military would keep the war in Iraq going for another six months.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., launched an aggressive campaign amongst her fellow House Democrat for their vote in approving this troop funding bill because Rep. Pelosi thought this bill was the best way to end the war. Even with many Democrats being opposed to pulling out the troops, Pelosi got her wish when this bill narrowly passed the House by a vote of 218-212.
On March 29, the Democratic controlled Senate approved similar legislation that would require President Bush to start an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq with a goal of having all troops out of Iraq by March 2008. Again, this bill was narrowly passed by a vote of 51-47.
Members of the House and Senate are planning to meet on Tuesday to negotiate a final bill that will be some type of compromise bill that will please both very liberal Democrats like McDermott and conservative Democrat members like Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. Sen. Nelson is against any type of legislation that includes imposing any deadlines on troop movements.
Any type of compromise bill will still have to be approved by both the House and the Senate; however, most analysts view this as a mere procedural move with Democratic leaders not anticipating any serious opposition.
President Bush meanwhile said he does not have a problem with Republicans and Democrats debating about their differences in how best to handle the war in Iraq; however, President Bush feels it is not fair to have the troops put in the middle of this debate.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich, said one option the Democrats are considering is a bill which will remove any withdrawal language with language that will tie funding the war based on certain Iraqi political progress milestones.
Senate majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, said that he was open to the idea mentioned by Sen. Levin, but Reid went on to say President Bush would not be receiving a bill with nothing on it about troop withdrawal.
Sen. Reid went on to say the Democratic controlled Congress is committed to funding the troops even though he is supporting legislation that would cut-off funding troop combat missions in Iraq after March 2008.
Sen. Reid went on to explain that there would still be funding for non-combat missions in Iraq that would include counterterrorism missions and missions to better train the Iraq security forces. However, Reid feels the time to continuing the funding of combat missions is coming to a close.
Read more about the Democrats Iraq plan at Yahoo News.
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