Republicans open to benchmarks

Republican leaders say they are open to the possibility of adding benchmarks to an Iraq funding bill.

“I’m not taking any options off the table,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters ahead of a meeting on the issue at the White House. “What I want is a clean bill, a clean bill that supports our troops who are out there fighting for the safety and security of the American people.”

{mosads}Following President Bush’s veto of the Iraq funding bill, Congress has to go back to the drawing board.

Both sides steadfastly maintain that they will not cut off funding for the troops. But Democrats also want to change the course in Iraq while Republicans oppose any measure that they view as tying the hands of military commanders.

One area they could agree on, however, is setting benchmarks for the Iraqi government.

“There’s bipartisan frustration in the Congress with the Iraqi government,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday on Fox News. “I think we can reach an agreement on the kinds of requirements of the Iraqi government that they ought to be pursuing anyway.”

The Iraqis need to pass an oil law and set up local elections, he added.

“There are a number of other things they know they need to do in order to continue to enjoy our confidence,” he stated. “And most of it has not yet been done.”

However, Democrats are expected to call for benchmarks with teeth, arguing that otherwise there is no incentive for Iraq’s government to move quickly.

In addition, Democratic leaders, who have been frustrated with what they see as a president running roughshod over Congress, will continue to try to assert themselves in the debate.

They note that voters in November decided on a course change in Iraq by putting Democrats in power.

“What [Bush] did was veto the will of the American people last November, that we should find our way out of Iraq, that we’ve got to begin to reduce our troop presence because there’s no military solution in Iraq,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told CNN Wednesday.