Washington – The Senate’s political left and right retreated to opposite corners on Iraq war policy Thursday, imperiling efforts by Sen. Ken Salazar and other centrists to keep compromise alive.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., dismissed the possibility of allowing votes on any proposals lacking deadlines for pulling troops out of Iraq. Republicans in turn mostly backed the White House’s timetable keeping forces deployed through next summer.
That left Salazar, D-Colo., searching for allies for his bipartisan measure. Working with Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Salazar wants to make the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group law and move troops from combat to primarily support roles.
“There’s been lots of votes here that have not done anything,” Salazar said. “All that is happening is that nothing is being accomplished.”
The Senate on Wednesday rejected a measure from Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., requiring troops to have as much time off as they spend deployed. With the failure of the Webb legislation, a Republican leadership aide said, Republicans no longer felt any pressure to back bipartisan measures – including Salazar’s.
Reid criticized Republicans’ votes on the Webb amendment.
“They want to protect their president more than they want to protect our troops,” he said.
Reid reiterated his position Thursday of allowing votes only on measures that force a dramatic change in President Bush’s policy, even if those offerings have no chance of garnering the 60 votes needed for adoption under a bipartisan agreement.
“The only thing I’m going to do that’s bipartisan is something that tells the president Congress is upset with what you are doing and we need to get our troops home,” he said.
In the first of two votes Thursday, the Senate passed, 72-25, a resolution condemning the message of a ad in The New York Times that labeled Gen. David Petraeus as “General Betray Us.” Salazar and Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., voted in support of the resolution.
Senators then moved to a vote on a measure from Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., that would have required U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq to begin within 90 days. It failed 28-70, with Salazar and Allard voting against.
Some senators said they doubted any change on Iraq policy could take place before the next election.
“Since the opening bell in January, I have sensed hyperallegiance to politics before governance,” said Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., who added that lawmakers’ attitude was “tee up the ’08 election and subordinate compromise.”
Reid, who in the past has called Salazar’s legislation a “toothless tiger,” asked Salazar on Thursday about the measure.
“I told him that I had not yet given up hope,” Salazar said.
In an effort to draw more supporters, Salazar and Alexander on Thursday were negotiating rewrites. The pair want the legislation to more clearly dictate when troops switch from combat to support jobs.
Salazar said he didn’t know whether Reid would allow a vote on the measure with that rewrite. As of Thursday, the bill lacked enough backers to pass the Senate’s key 60-vote hurdle.
Others were continuing to push other compromise measures. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., have a bill that would shift the mission of troops in Iraq. There is talk of merging that bill with the Salazar-Alexander measure, Collins said.
As other more-partisan measures are rejected, Nelson said, one of the compromise measures will have room to emerge.
