GOP Blocks Debate on Policy

Feb 06, 05:44 AM

Current Headlines: By Jake Thompson, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

Feb. 6--WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans on Monday blocked a full debate over President Bush's troop expansion in Iraq. Democrats insisted that they will push ahead in trying to prod Bush to change his new Iraq strategy.

The Senate had been scheduled to debate a nonbinding resolution expressing disapproval over Bush's plans to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq.

Facing a filibuster threat from Republicans, the Senate voted 49-47 to hold the debate. However, that was 11 votes short of the number needed to overcome the threatened filibuster.

All but two Republicans voted to block debate on the president's strategy. GOP lawmakers said they made their move because Democrats had stopped them from offering alternative resolutions. They said they expected a deal to be worked out soon.

The standoff pitted Nebraska's senators against each other, even though both are cosponsors of the resolution that "disagrees" with Bush's troop buildup.

Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, perhaps the most outspoken Republican in Congress opposing the new Iraq strategy, voted with his party to filibuster his own resolution disapproving of the president's move.

Hagel for weeks has urged his colleagues to debate the resolution.

Hagel's spokesman, Mike Buttry, said Monday that Hagel voted for the filibuster to preserve the minority party's rights to offer amendments or other resolutions.

However, Hagel voiced confidence that the Senate's leaders will come up with an agreement to allow a full-fledged debate.

"It (debate) is clearly in the interest of our country," Hagel said. "It is clearly in the interest of our troops."

Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson voted to debate the resolution. He complained that Republicans were delaying the Senate from possibly influencing a change of strategy.

"Here we are after weeks of negotiations, after weeks of public proclamations, after weeks of consideration, we're about to witness the minority choose politics over progress," Nelson said.

"The time has come," he said. "If not now, when? If not now, do we wait for troops to die before we oppose the president's plan? If not now, do we wait for more violence, more unrest, more danger for our troops before we act?"

Some, Nelson added, have said that the president deserves one more chance to succeed in Iraq.

"How do we ask our troops to do again what has failed in the past?" Nelson asked. "What's different this time?"

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky sought to play down the stalemate. He said all that Republicans want is a fair chance to consider various resolutions, and he promised to work with Democrats to come up with a deal.

"There's not a single Republican senator seeking to avoid this debate," McConnell said.

However, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada accused Republicans of using Senate rules to postpone debate over America's role in Iraq, which polls show is increasingly unpopular with the American people.

Voting for the filibuster, Reid said, "is a green light for George Bush to continue down the same failed course of almost four years."

Reid expressed surprise that Hagel and Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the lead GOP sponsor of the anti-troop-surge resolution, joined their GOP colleagues to filibuster the measure.

"How could they vote against the motion to proceed?" Reid asked.

Over the past several weeks, senior Democrats and a handful of Republicans have worked together to write a resolution rebuking the president's new strategy, announced in early January, to send an additional 21,500 combat troops to Iraq, mainly in Baghdad.

The Bush administration and its congressional supporters have fought back to try to derail the resolution, which would serve as an embarrassing reprimand for the White House.

On Monday, Republicans and Democrats criticized one another's positions on the resolution.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent Democrat from Connecticut who supports Bush's plan, said a nonbinding resolution would do little but harm chances for success in Iraq, discourage U.S. troops and hearten enemies.

"What we say will be heard by the thuggish regimes in Iran and Syria and by al-Qaida terrorists eager for indications that America's will is breaking," Lieberman said.

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., another key sponsor of the resolution against Bush's troop increase, said that the Iraq war is the most important issue today in the nation.

"For the Senate to not even debate the most important issue of our time would be a total forfeiture of our duty," Biden said.

-----

Copyright (c) 2007, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.