Vote keeps withdrawal date in bill

The bill is expected to be voted on as early as today.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
WASHINGTON -- Despite repeated threats from President Bush to veto any bill setting a time line for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, the Democratic-controlled Senate on Thursday for the first time signaled support for legislation calling for most troops to come home within a year.
The Democrats, in a 50-48 vote largely along party lines, thwarted a Republican attempt to erase a U.S. withdrawal date attached to the proposed spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The move paves the way for a proposal that directs the president to begin the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq within 120 days of its enactment. It also sets the nonbinding goal of having only a limited number of U.S. troops in Iraq by March 31, 2008.
The legislation is expected to be voted on as early as today. If it passes, as expected, both chambers of Congress would be on record calling on the Bush administration to wind down the war in Iraq by next year.
Needed help
The Democrats, while holding a narrow majority in the Senate, needed the help of maverick Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., to overcome votes by Sens. Mark Pryor, D-Ark, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., who voted with the Republicans to remove the troop withdrawal language from the bill.
The withdrawal language is tied to a 122 billion spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With the president's threat to veto the measure, the Democratic leadership and White House could find themselves in politically vulnerable positions because Defense Secretary Robert Gates has warned that current funding for the war will dry up in a matter of weeks.
After Tuesday's vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., played his cards close to his vest on how much he is willing to slash from the legislation.
"I hope he [Bush] will work with us so we can come up with something agreeable for both" sides, Reid said at a news conference. "But I'm not anxious to strip anything out of the bill."
White House response
Before the vote, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, "This and other provisions would place freedom and democracy in Iraq at grave risk, embolden our enemies and undercut the administration's plans to develop the Iraqi economy. If this legislation were presented to the president, he would veto the bill."
The Senate action comes on the heels of the House voting last week for a war spending bill that called for the pullout of all combat troops by the fall of 2008. The Senate and House will have to craft compromise language before it is passed and sent to Bush for his signature, or the more likely prospect of a veto.
With a slim majority in the Senate, the Democrats needed the vote of Hagel, a Vietnam veteran who has been critical of the president's handling of the war.
Hagel and Sen. James Webb, D-Va., also introduced an amendment to the legislation Tuesday that would limit the amount of time troops could be deployed overseas as well as calling for troops that are deployed to be certified "mission capable" before they could be dispatched to a war zone. The Senate may vote on the Hagel-Webb proposal today.
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