Washington – President Bush will meet with the Democratic leaders of Congress at the White House today to discuss what to do about Iraq after Bush vetoed the Democrats’ war-funding bill on Tuesday because it contained a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops.
A bipartisan consensus appeared to be growing on Capitol Hill that any new bill to support U.S. troops in Iraq must contain benchmarks for political progress by the Iraqi government – with consequences if the Iraqis fail to meet them.
But it remained unclear what benchmarks or consequences Republican lawmakers or the White House would accept or whether congressional Republicans would continue to stand with Bush.
As he repeatedly had threatened, Bush vetoed the $124 billion war-spending bill Tuesday because of its timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.
“It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing,” Bush said at the White House. That “would be setting a date for failure, and that would be irresponsible.”
Bush’s veto sets the stage for compromise. Aware that they lack a two-thirds majority to override the veto, congressional Democrats are searching for terms that could pick up enough Republican support to prevail while appealing to anti-war Democrats.
After Bush spoke, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., faced the TV cameras and vowed to work with Bush but not yield to him.
“The president wants a blank check. The Congress is not going to give it to him,” Pelosi said.
While Bush has insisted he’ll accept no withdrawal timeline, his aides have signaled that some performance benchmarks for Iraq could be negotiable.
As the legislation headed Tuesday to its inevitable veto, several Republicans expressed frustration that Bush and the Democratic leadership had insisted on a showdown rather than serious closed-door talks.
“There are a number of Republicans who do think that some kind of benchmarks, properly crafted, would actually be helpful,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “So I think that is an area that we can talk about, beginning tomorrow.”
While Republicans expressed a willingness to negotiate, Democratic leaders were less open Tuesday afternoon.
“I don’t want to get into a negotiation with myself,” said Reid when asked about his talks with McConnell about a compromise.
The vetoed measure set benchmarks for the Iraqi government to develop its military forces and take actions to achieve national reconciliation.
If Bush didn’t certify that the benchmarks were being met, the bill would have required that U.S. troops start leaving Iraq by July 1, with a goal of ending the withdrawal by Dec. 31, 2007. If the benchmarks were met, the withdrawal would begin Oct. 1 and end by the same goal.
Bush’s veto capped a day heavy in symbolism for congressional opponents of the war and for a president who has staked his legacy on Iraq.
Both sides are trying to rally public opinion behind their stands.
Pelosi and Reid sent the bill to the White House after a Capitol Hill signing ceremony.
It coincided with the fourth anniversary of Bush’s landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln to proclaim that major combat was over in Iraq, giving his address under a banner that read “Mission Accomplished.”
“After more than four years of a failed policy, it’s time to remove our troops from an open- ended civil war and for Iraq to take responsibility for its own future,” Reid said.
The White House countered with stagecraft of its own.
Bush delivered an afternoon speech at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., where he said that removing U.S. forces from Iraq would turn that country into a “cauldron of chaos.”
Bush signed the veto with a pen given to him by Robert Derga, the father of Marine Corps Reserve Cpl. Dustin Derga, who was killed in Iraq on May 8, 2005. The elder Derga spoke with Bush two weeks ago at a meeting the president had with military families at the White House.
Derga asked Bush to promise to use the pen in his veto.
Bush has used his veto power only once before, when he rejected a measure last summer to lift restrictions on federal money for embryonic stem-cell research.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
