US lawmakers gird for battle over Bush Iraq policy

[Ron Burgundy]

AFP - Majority Democrats in Congress, prevented from passing a Senate resolution opposing White House Iraq policy, get a fresh chance this week in the House of Representatives.

The House this week plans a marathon debate on a non-binding resolution of disapproval with President George W. Bush's deployment of 21,500 additional troops to Iraq, which comes just days after Senate Republicans threw a procedural roadblock in the path of a similar measure.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record) told US television Sunday that both Democrats and Republicans will have an equal chance to speak their minds in debating the symbolic rebuke of Bush's Iraq policy.

"We do not agree with the president's surge," Hoyer told NBC television's "Meet the Press." "The military doesn't agree, (Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-) Maliki doesn't agree, the American people don't agree," said Hoyer.

"We're going to allow members with full debate Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to give their opinion, and then to vote 'do you agree with the president's proposal?'," Hoyer added.

The draft House bill has been crafted to appeal to the largest number of Democrats possible and to enough Republicans to state the House members' disagreement with Bush's January 10 announcement of a troop "surge," while showing the lawmakers' support for the troops.

Republican leaders meanwhile are seeking to minimize any fallout from the debate they call meaningless political theater as they attempt to limit internal fractures.

"There are Republicans in the House and the Senate who are skeptical of the president's plan. That's well known," said House Republican leader John Boehner (news, bio, voting record).

"And so I would imagine there are some members that we'll lose regardless of what the resolution is," he said.

Several Republicans -- many of whom are worried about the outcome of the 2008 election after losing majorities in both houses of Congress last November -- have expressed support for some sort of bill expressing dissatisfaction with the administration's handling of the Iraq question.

The White House, which has already said that the president would not be swayed by a non-binding resolution, seemed ready to stay clear of the debate.

"It's appropriate to let them go ahead and work through it," White House spokesman Tony Snow said last week.

"This is not something where the White House is in a position, or ought to be in a position, to try to tell people exactly how they ought to frame it," he said, calling the debate "healthy."

A number of Democratic lawmakers -- among them some 2008 presidential contenders -- have demanded a tougher, binding Iraq resolution.

Last week, retired admiral Joe Sestak (news, bio, voting record), a newly elected House Democrat, was the latest to propose a deadline for withdrawing all troops: December 31.

Sestak said he will vote for the resolution as drafted. "Even if it's a half measure, I will take any measure that moves us farther down that line" toward withdrawal, he told the New York Times.

While the non-binding resolution may not have teeth, budget debates slated for early March certainly will.

"I have called a hearing on all the Iraq-related legislation introduced in both the House and the Senate," said Democratic Representative Tom Lantos (news, bio, voting record).

"We are likely to have a six-hour hearing, both morning and afternoon, so every colleague in the House and in the Senate who introduced legislation on Iraq will have an opportunity to present his legislation formally to the House Foreign Affairs Committee," which he chairs, he said.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070211/ts_alt_afp/uscongressiraqbush [link]