Resolution requires more on Iraq from Bush

The Senate would require a 'significant transition' to Iraqi sovereignty in 2006.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
WASHINGTON -- Reflecting heightened public anxiety over the Iraq war, the Senate issued its most direct challenge yet to President Bush's handling of the conflict Tuesday, as it pressed for concrete steps toward troop withdrawals and a requirement for the White House to provide more information on military operations.
By a vote of 79 to 19, the Senate approved a resolution designating 2006 as "a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty ... thereby creating the conditions for the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq."
It also would require the White House to submit to Congress an unclassified report every 90 days detailing U.S. policy and military operations.
The resolution was offered by Republican leaders after the Senate rejected a Democratic resolution, 58 to 40, that would have pressured the administration to outline a plan to draw down U.S. forces in Iraq. On that vote, five Democrats voted with the GOP majority while only one Republican -- Lincoln Chafee, of Rhode Island -- voted yes.
Democrats have moved aggressively to challenge Bush over how the United States went to war and how the war can be brought to an end.
Both parties concerned
Despite the partisan nature of the final votes, the day's debate reflected clear unease in both parties about the administration's Iraq policy -- and a new willingness by the Senate to insist that Bush provide more clarity of how he intends to exit Iraq.
The weaker GOP measure was added to a defense policy reauthorization bill, along with other provisions that would codify the treatment of military detainees and establish new legal rights for terrorism suspects.
One of those provisions, sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would establish strict guidelines for interrogation of suspected terrorists. Another would dramatically alter U.S. policy for treating captured terrorist suspects by granting them a final recourse to the federal courts but stripping them of some key legal rights.
The Senate approved the overall legislation by 98 to 0. A final compromise must be reached with the House, but the bipartisan Senate action suggests a potentially pivotal shift, with Republicans and Democrats alike no longer content to follow Bush's lead on the war.
The bill was not without victories for the president, including support for the military tribunals Bush has set up to try detainees at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Yet even that was tempered, with language letting the inmates appeal to a federal court their designation as enemy combatants and their sentences.
Difference of opinion
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the war-related resolution "a vote of no confidence" on Bush's Iraq policies. "Staying the course will not do," Reid said.
However, Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., insisted on the Senate floor that his colleagues were in no way trying to shift administration policy or rebuke the White House. He called such an assessment "absurd" and "ridiculous."
Polls show Bush's popularity has tumbled in part because of public frustration over Iraq, a war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,000 American troops.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino hailed Tuesday's votes as a "bipartisan rejection of the call for a [troop] withdrawal timetable" and said the administration "would be happy to comply with the Senate's call for more reports."
On Dec. 15, Iraqis are to vote on a new parliament, and the Bush administration hopes the election will herald a new era of stability in the country, he said.
Rank-and-file Republicans concede the political atmosphere is changing. Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio, who faces a tough re-election bid in a state with marked misgivings about the war, said he is pleased to see the Senate engaging the White House on war policy, and predicted the trend would grow more pronounced. "This is the way it should be," DeWine said. "We should be involved."
The House has already approved its version of the annual defense policy bill, but without the contentious provisions added by the Senate on Tuesday. Acting House Majority Leader Roy Blunt, R-Mo., spoke favorably Tuesday about Warner's resolution, suggesting that the requirement for quarterly reports to Congress could showcase what he called "the good news" from Iraq. But he would not endorse the provision, saying House members would have to discuss it further.