NYT : Democrats Newly Willing to Compromise on Iraq

Democrats Newly Willing to Compromise on Iraq

By CARL HULSE | September 6, 2007

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 — With a mixed picture emerging about progress in Iraq, Senate Democratic leaders are showing a new openness to compromise as they try to attract Republican support for forcing at least modest troop withdrawals in the coming months.

After short-circuiting consideration of votes on some bipartisan proposals on Iraq before the August break, senior Democrats now say they are willing to rethink their push to establish a withdrawal deadline of next spring if doing so will attract the 60 Senate votes needed to prevail.

Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said, “If we have to make the spring part a goal, rather than something that is binding, and if that is able to produce some additional votes to get us over the filibuster, my own inclination would be to consider that.”

Democrats would need to lure the 60 senators in order to cut off a likely Republican filibuster.

The emerging proposal by Mr. Levin and Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, would still order the administration to begin pulling at least some combat troops out of Iraq, probably by the end of the year. It is not clear what other provisions the measure may include.

But Mr. Levin, who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee and who met Wednesday with Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said a compromise may be worth making. It would allow Congress to assert its own voice on Iraq policy, after falling short of that goal in most such votes throughout the year, he said.

The willingness to consider alternatives represents a shift by Democrats and is a recognition of changing political and practical realities they face in grappling with Iraq and its future.

Democrats had been counting on more Republicans to make a clean break from the president after the summer recess, but the White House has managed, at least temporarily, to hold on to much of its support.

Some Democrats have concluded that their decision earlier this summer to thwart votes on alternatives left them open to criticism that they were being intransigent. Democrats had wanted to keep pressure on Republicans over the summer by denying them votes on Iraq. Now, with the recess over, Democratic leaders are more willing to allow alternatives to a hard withdrawal date to reach the floor to keep pressure on President Bush.

Mr. Levin and other Democrats said this week that they were reaching out to Republicans who had expressed reservations about Mr. Bush’s policy to generate momentum for a proposal by Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, to begin to remove at least a limited number of troops from Iraq by the end of the year.

Republicans and Democrats are also discussing ways to tweak a bipartisan plan by Senators Ken Salazar, Democrat of Colorado, and Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, to address Democratic concerns that it did not have enough teeth. That plan, which would enact the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, is drawing new backing in the House from Republicans looking for an alternative to the status quo.

“I think there is a general feeling that people would like to pull something together that would have bipartisan support,” Mr. Salazar said.

In addition, Democrats want to try again on a proposal by Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, to prohibit troops from being returned to Iraq unless they have spent at least an identical amount of time back in the United States. The plan attracted 56 votes in July.

Mr. Reid, who has had preliminary discussions with Mr. Warner, acknowledged that there was new interest in trying to coalesce around a middle-ground proposal, but he said there was no agreement on a plan. “That’s not there yet,” he said.

Mr. Reid and other Democrats said they would continue to press their preferred approach of setting a date to have most combat troops out of Iraq even while pursuing a compromise with Republicans. Party strategists say that withdrawal is a top priority of the party’s anti-war base and that polls continue to show that much of the public favors a withdrawal from Iraq.

The timing of future Iraq votes remains uncertain. Leaders in both the House and the Senate appear inclined to allow Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, the top two Americans in Iraq, to present their findings next week on conditions there and give lawmakers time to digest them before moving forward.

Democratic officials say Mr. Warner’s approach could provide their best opening, allowing Congress to approve a start date for withdrawal without setting a deadline for completing the job. Most Republicans and several Democrats have said they are uncomfortable with such a deadline.

“Warner is where the play is,” said one Democratic official familiar with the party’s thinking who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to discuss internal deliberations publicly.

Both Republicans and Democrats said that talks of any compromise remained in the early stages but that they believed there would be new potential for finding a consensus once the administration’s reports were aired. “I will do the best I can to work with other members of the Senate to come up with a bipartisan resolution,” said Senator George Voinovich of Ohio, one Republican in the sights of Democrats.

Mr. Levin, the Armed Services Committee chairman, said he detected substantial desire among his Republican colleagues to force a change in Iraq. “We just have to talk to more people to see what it is that can get us over the filibuster,” he said. “That is key. If we can get up to 60, that would be a major step.”