{"article":{"id":194446,"heading":"Democrats wimp out again","author":"Anne Flaherty","created":"2007-03-02 20:53:05","modified":"2007-03-02 20:53:26","last_modified":"Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:53:26","article":"

The plan could draw bipartisan support, but it is expected to be a tough sell to members who don't think it goes far enough to satisfy voters angered by the four-year conflict.

Bush \"hasn't to date done anything we've asked him to do, so why we would think he would do anything in the future is beyond me,\" said Rep. Lynn Woolsey of California, one of a group of liberal Democrats pushing for an immediate end to the war.

Democrats' protests over the war grew louder in January after they took control of Congress and Bush said he would send 21,500 more troops to Iraq. Earlier this month, House Democrats pushed through a nonbinding resolution opposing the buildup.

Since then, Democrats have been trying to decide what to do next. Some worried that a plan by Rep. John P. Murtha (D., Pa.) to restrict funding for the war would go too far. Murtha is extending his support to the revised proposal.

The tactic is more likely to embarrass Bush politically than force his hand on the war. He would have to sign repeated waivers for units and report to Congress those units with equipment shortfalls and other problems.

In the Senate, a group of senior Democrats wants to repeal the original measure that authorized the war and write a new resolution restricting the mission and ordering troop withdrawals to begin by summer. But Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said the Iraq debate would have to wait until the Senate finished work to improve homeland security.

\"That would mean we would hold off the Iraq legislation for a matter of days, not weeks,\" he said.

The House Democratic proposal brought a sharp response yesterday from Republicans.

Rep. Adam Putnam (R., Fla.) called the plan a \"fig leaf\" to distract the public from what he said was Democrats' ultimate goal of cutting off funds for troops in combat.

Putnam said after a closed-door conference meeting: \"We support full funding for our troops who are in harm's way - without strings attached.\"

War Powers to Get High-Profile Study

Former Secretaries of State James A. Baker 3d and Warren Christopher will head a private, bipartisan panel to study a gnawing national question: Who does the Constitution say has the power to begin, conduct and end wars?

Baker and Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic member of the House,

headed the Iraq Study Group, which in late 2006 made recommendations to the Bush administration on Iraq war policy.

The war-powers study is sponsored by

the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

Among its 12 members are Baker, who served under President George H.W. Bush; Christopher, who was in the Clinton administration; Hamilton; former Reagan Attorney General Edwin Meese, who was also on the Iraq Study Group; and Brent Scowcroft, a former national security adviser.<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/www.philly.com\/mld\/inquirer\/news\/local\/states\/new_jersey\/16806037.htm","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","summary":"Proposal would force Bush to admit military shortfalls.\r\n\r\nWASHINGTON - House Democratic leaders are developing an antiwar proposal that would not cut off money for U.S. troops in Iraq but would require President Bush to acknowledge problems with an overburdened military.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2007\/03\/poltiprom.jpg","filesize":"42.7 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2007\/03\/194446.php","image":{"original":"\/uploads\/2007\/03\/poltiprom.jpg","small":"\/uploads\/2007\/03\/poltiprom.jpgthumb.jpg"}},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}