On Iraq, Senate Republicans defeated a Democratic measure calling for a timetable. Moments later, the Senate voted 79-19 in favor of a Republican alternative that urged that 2006 "should be a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty," with Iraqi forces taking the lead in providing security to create the conditions for the phased withdrawal of United States forces.
The maneuvering on Iraq showed a willingness by Senate Republicans to question the White House _ although carefully _ on a war that's growing increasingly unpopular with Americans. Polls show Bush's popularity has tumbled in part because of public frustration over Iraq, a war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,000 American troops.
That left Republicans seeking a balance, working to fend off a frontal attack by Democrats while calling in the White House to do more.
The Iraq section in the Senate bill directs the administration to "explain to Congress and the American people its strategy for the successful completion of the mission in Iraq" and to provide reports on U.S. foreign policy and military operations in Iraq every three months until all U.S. combat brigades have been withdrawn.
In rejecting a timetable for troop withdrawal, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he feared such language could "set up a fragile situation, particularly on the eve of another election on December 15."
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., argued that the U.S. should begin "a substantial and continuing draw down of U.S. forces" after the Iraqi elections. "There is widespread recognition that our overwhelming military presence is inflaming the insurgency," he said.
In a mixed bag for the president, the Senate also voted to endorse the Bush administration's military procedures for detaining and prosecuting foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But that provision also would allow the detainees to appeal their detention status and punishments to a federal appeals court in Washington.
That avenue would take the place of the one tool the Supreme Court gave detainees in 2004 to fight the legality of their detentions _ the right to file habeas corpus petitions in any federal court.
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