House Democrats Boldly Brag Plans to Block Funds

The Democrats in the U.S. House of Representative are doing something the Senate Democrats are not--their flexing their muscles.

Representative Tauscher said Democratic policy must "satisfy the American people that we're putting a speed bump in front of the president that will actually hold," adding: "The White House is used to doing business on their own, but they're realizing things have changed. This is vastly different."

Senate Democrats at the same time will seek bipartisan support for a non binding resolution opposing the president's plan, possibly as early as next week, in what some party officials see as the first step in a strategy aimed at isolating Bush politically and forcing the beginning of a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from the conflict.

House Democrats also expect to bring for a resolution of disapproval for Bush's new policy but have moved farther than Senate Democrats toward an outright funding confrontation with the White House.

Senator Edward Kennedy called Tuesday for the administration to ask for renewed authorization from Congress before sending additional troops to Iraq. "I don't believe there's a single member of the U.S. Senate that would have voted for the authorization bill in October 2002 if they thought the authorization was going to commit American forces to be involved in a civil war," he said yesterday.

But Democratic strategists said that, at this point, there is limited support for the Kennedy proposal.Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid, who with Pelosi co-signed a letter to the president last week urging him not to send more troops to Iraq, has begun meetings with other senior senators, including Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl M. Levin, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Sen. Jack Reed to develop specific responses to Bush's new policy.

Those plans could attach so many conditions and benchmarks to the funds that it would be all but impossible to spend the money without running afoul of the Congress. "Twenty-one thousand five hundred troops ought to have 21,500 strings attached to them," said House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn