Democratic challengers stick with GOP on House Iraq vote
In several of the most hotly contested congressional races this year, Democratic challengers say they would have broken party ranks to vote with Republicans in favor of the nonbinding resolution supporting President Bush's policies in Iraq.
Buoyed by the death of Abu Musab al Zarqawi and the president's secret trip to Baghdad to meet with new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, Republicans have rallied behind the war in an election-year attempt to portray Democrats as "cut and run" liberals. Democrats, meanwhile, have continued to press Bush for a firm commitment to withdraw U.S. troops.
The House resolution to stay in Iraq without setting a plan for withdrawal passed last week after several days of impassioned debate by a vote of 256 to 153 with 42 Democrats in favor. This week, Republicans in the Senate defeated two amendments introduced by Democrats that would have called for such a plan; one introduced by Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts called for a complete withdrawal by July of next year.
Although they criticized the House vote as political maneuvering by Republicans, at least four highly touted Democrat prospects — Tammy Duckworth, Baron Hill, Mary Jo Kilroy, and Ron Klein — said they would have voted with Republicans on the resolution.
Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran who lost both legs when her helicopter crashed in 2003, would have voted in favor, "but the resolution is really inconsequential because its purpose was political rather than substantive," says spokesman Jon Carson.
Hill, who voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq when he was a member of Congress in 2002, says he would also have supported the resolution and says troops should not be withdrawn until Iraq is stabilized.
"Baron believes in the Pottery Barn doctrine," says spokesman Michael O'Connor. "This is a 'you break it, you own it' kind' of situation."
In Ohio, Kilroy, who is facing Rep. Deborah Pryce, says Congress should demand a plan from the president to bring troops home.
"There is a lot of language in this resolution that of course everybody agrees with, but I think they are using it for very partisan political purposes," says Kilroy. "I think they are refusing to allow a necessary real debate on the war and an appropriate timetable for withdrawing and redeploying from Iraq."
And Rep. Clay Shaw, a Florida Republican, and Democrat Ron Klein shared a rare moment of agreement. While deriding the vote as a political stunt, Klein's campaign manager, Brian Smoot, says Klein would have voted in favor. Klein says the United States entered the war "under some false pretenses," but he is opposed to arbitrary deadlines for withdrawal.
"Now that there is al Qaeda in Iraq we need to be fighting them there as we would anywhere," Smoot says.
With Dan Gilgoff, Liz Halloran, Alex Kingsbury, Danielle Knight, Bret Schulte, and Will Sullivan
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