Levin seeks negotiation on Iraq with GOP

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) vowed Friday to resurrect negotiations with a key Republican to forge a bipartisan compromise on Iraq, after the chamber voted to shut down debate on a defense policy bill and effectively delay the fight over the war until at least next month.
    
Talks between Levin and Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) broke down Thursday shortly before the Senate voted 89–6 to end debate on the $460 billion defense authorization bill, which since July had been the prime target for Democratic efforts to attach measures that would have changed the course of the Iraq war. The Senate could send the defense bill to a conference committee with the House as early as Monday.
    
{mosads}Over the course of the debate, Republicans blocked repeated Democratic efforts to attach an amendment — co-sponsored by Levin and Rhode Island Democrat Jack Reed — to redeploy most troops out of Iraq in nine months. After coming up short, Levin sought to woo centrist Republicans, including Voinovich, by softening the requirement of redeploying troops into a goal of withdrawing the U.S. military from Iraq.
    
Voinovich, along with Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), proposed that the nine-month goal be extended to 15 months to avoid interference with the 2008 presidential election, according to Levin and aides.
    
“I believe that would be introducing a political element into what is a bipartisan effort,” Levin said Friday, adding that extending the timeframe would be “unacceptable to most Democrats.”
    
But Levin called the breakdown of negotiations a “temporary setback,” and said, “We’re going to keep working with Senator Voinovich to see if we can get 60 votes to at least establish a goal.”
    
The next vehicle for the Iraq debate could come by way of the fiscal 2008 defense appropriations bill, which could be brought to the Senate floor as early as next week. But Senate rules that prohibit authorizing language on an appropriations bill could make it difficult for Democrats to push forward with Iraq policy amendments. For Iraq amendments to survive budget rules, they likely would have to be tied to prohibiting funding for the war, which has tepid backing within the Democratic Caucus.
    
“I don’t want to formulate the issue of prohibiting funding; number one, it’s the wrong message for the troops; number two, it’s not going to succeed,” Levin said.
    
Another battle in the Senate Appropriations Committee is brewing on the White House’s $190 billion supplemental funding request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Democrats are signaling they may wait until next year to act on that request.