Senate Dems fail to cut off war funds 67-29

Source: ap

Senate Dems fail to cut off war funds

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent 35 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Anti-war Democrats in the Senate failed in an attempt to cut off funds for the Iraq war on Wednesday, a lopsided bipartisan vote that masked growing impatience within both political parties over
President Bush's handling of the four-year conflict.


The 67-29 vote against the measure left it far short of the 60 needed to advance. More than half the Senate's Democrats supported the move, exposing divisions within the party but also marking a growth in anti-war sentiment from last summer, when only a dozen members of the rank and file backed a troop withdrawal deadline.

"It was considered absolute heresy four months ago" to stop the war, said Sen. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, author of the measure to cut off funds for most military operations after March 31, 2008.

Ironically, the vote also cleared the way for the Democratic-controlled Congress to bow to Bush's wishes and approve a war funding bill next week stripped of the type of restrictions that drew his veto earlier this spring.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070517/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq;_ylt=AoY8EP8EC.zX0wRjWz14U9.s0NUE