Lawmakers could face fallout on Iraq

WASHINGTON -- After a contentious, three-month battle with the White House over Iraq, congressional Democrats are training their sights on the next round in July, but antiwar activists are spoiling for a fight far sooner than that.

The Democratic rank and file left Washington for the weeklong Memorial Day break with a slate of talking points on Congress's accomplishments that include "working responsibly to end the war."

In the past 100 days, virtually every Democrat has voted to demand troop withdrawals, and a majority of them voted Thursday effectively to cut off funds for the war.

But to antiwar groups, the only tally that mattered was Congress's easy approval of a $120 billion war spending bill that was stripped of timelines for troop withdrawals. A majority of House Democrats may have voted against it, but the Democratic leadership in both chambers facilitated its passage.

"Voters elected this Congress to lead the country out of the mess in Iraq," said Eli Pariser, executive director of the liberal activist group MoveOn.org Political Action. "We expect great political fallout for all of the representatives -- Republican and Democrat -- who stood in the way."

Democratic leaders contend that for the first time Congress has required the Bush administration to track military and political progress in Iraq in 18 prescribed areas and to report back to Congress in July. Some nonmilitary aid could be jeopardized if the Iraqi government fails to make progress.

The funding bill's passage "was the start of a whole new direction in Iraq," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California. "I think that the president's policy is going to begin to unravel now."

Pelosi praised the 140 Democrats who voted against the bill. But the praise struck a dissonant note because she was flanked by House majority leader Steny Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland; House majority whip James Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina; and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, all of whom had voted for the funds.

"There are 232 Democrats in the House of Representatives," Hoyer said. "There are 232 Democrats that believed that our policies in Iraq are failing."

Activists declared they would remain focused on Republicans but would hold Democrats accountable.

Television advertisements, financed by an antiwar coalition, will target Senators Norm Coleman, Republican of Minnesota, and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, both up for reelection next year.

And MoveOn organizers said Democrats also are likely to see skirmishes in their districts.

"This is not partisan anymore. This is not about staying away from Democrats to make them look good or attacking all Republicans to make them look bad," said Susan Shaer, cochairwoman of the Win Without War coalition. "We don't care who you are or whether we usually like you. This vote was wrong."

Even as President Bush last week signed the bill to provide $95 billion for military operations in Iraq, members of his party said they expect troop cutbacks in the fall.

Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a Republican member of the Armed Services Committee, said any reduction will have to wait until September, when General David H. Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, submits his report on the progress of the war.

Petraeus is due to tell the president and Congress whether the current troop increase is working.

"By September . . . I think most of the people in Congress believe, unless something extraordinary occurs, that we should be on a move to draw those surge numbers down," Sessions said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.