The Politico: Democrats Snipe At Senate Leaders over Handling of Iraq Issue

February 27, 2007
Democrats Snipe At Senate Leaders over Handling of Iraq Issue
By: John Bresnahan

Senate Democrats are accusing their leaders of mismanaging the twin efforts to block President Bush's troop surge in Iraq and force a quicker end to the war.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday postponed for at least a week action on a Democratic plan to rewrite the 2002 congressional resolution authorizing the war, imposing new wartime restrictions on the administration.

Reid is facing criticism from both flanks of his party.

Sen. Ben Nelson, a conservative Democrat from Nebraska, said the new Democratic strategy could unfairly hamstring the president and military commanders. "I think it is very difficult to start changing things after the fact and still avoid micromanaging the war."

And Sen. Russ Feingold, a liberal Democrat from Wisconsin, criticized the latest Democratic strategy as too timid and toothless in stopping the war. Approving a new authorization resolution would be the same "as voting for a new Iraq war and that I am not going to do."

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr., a Delaware Democrat seeking the presidency, and Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) wrote the new plan. Senate insiders faulted Biden and, to a lesser extent, Levin, for telegraphing their plans to Republicans prematurely -- before most members were fully briefed on it.

"It was clearly a mistake," said a top Senate Democratic aide. "Presidential candidate Joe Biden wanted headlines and got them."...

http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0207/Democrats_Snipe_At_Senate_Leaders_over_Handling_of_Iraq_Issue.html