GOP may get a ‘surprise’ on Iraq bill, Reid says

Senate Democrats hailed yesterday’s start to debate on their leadership-backed resolution opening a 12-month window to withdraw most American troops from Iraq, but a deal with Republicans on how to structure the debate remained elusive by late yesterday.

Republicans are likely to insist on a 60-vote threshold for passage, which Democrats will be hard-pressed to achieve, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) described the goal of the debate to put Republicans on record as “rubberstamping” the White House’s unpopular war policy.

Reid also hinted that more Republicans could vote to approve the measure than acknowledged that they will, saying, “They let us debate this … they may end up with a surprise.”

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) declared victory after the GOP’s decision late Tuesday to allow debate to begin. The resolution won a cloture vote with only nine Republicans voting no, but Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Reid have yet to agree on which amendments will receive floor votes.

If no deal is reached, another cloture vote on the measure is likely, possibly as soon as today or tomorrow, although no Friday votes were originally planned for this week.

McConnell contended on the floor that his conference was eager to take up this week’s Iraq measure.

“Previous resolutions proposed by the Democrats were a mere statement of opinion, or sentiment. This one has a binding quality,” McConnell said.

Today’s planned House vote on its $124 billion Iraq supplemental, meanwhile, had some members looking ahead to another debate on the war before the Easter recess.

Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the GOP’s conference vice chairman, said the supplemental debate would shed a bright light on Democrats’ internal divisions.

“Now that we’re starting to play with real legislation, like the supplemental, I think some of them are getting a little bit nervous,” Cornyn said.

Among the thorny issues Senate Democrats will have to grapple with on the supplemental is a proposal from Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) to require that President Bush seek congressional authorization before attacking Iran. House leaders added a similar provision to their supplemental before striking it amid skepticism from lawmakers loyal to Israel.

Reid has said he supports Webb’s bill in general terms but has not committed to attaching it to the supplemental.

“There is a lot of concern, not just with Democrats, also Republicans, on the overextension of presidential power,” Webb said, predicting that the Iran question soon would come up for debate.