GOP, Democrats Seek Edge in Iraq Debate

A U.S. Army soldier from the 101st Airborne Division takes cover from sniper fire in Ramadi, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, June 20, 2006. Elsewhere, the U.S. military recovered the bodies of two 101st Airborne Division soldiers missing and reportedly kidnapped, and Iraqi officials said the Americans were first tortured and then killed in a "barbaric" way. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg) (Jacob Silberberg - AP)

The Bush administration says U.S. troops will stay in Iraq until Iraqi security forces can defend the country against a lethal insurgency that rose up after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

Republicans relished the daylong debate. It highlighted divisions in the Democratic Party little more than four months before the elections and as the GOP is trying to overcome polls showing that the public favors a power shift to Democrats.

"We're very happy to have this," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the second-ranking Senate Republican. "It's been interesting to watch the Democrats debate among themselves."

Democrats tried to shift attention from differences in their party even though the debate was prompted by two separate Democratic proposals on the fate of U.S. troops. Votes on both are expected by week's end.

Republicans opted not to offer their own alternative. Instead, they chose to make their position clear with what are expected to be nearly unanimous GOP votes against the Democratic proposals.

One of those proposals, sponsored by Kerry and Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, would require that the administration withdraw all combat troops from Iraq by July 1, 2007, with redeployments beginning this year.

The other proposal _ which Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and most of his rank-and-file support _ would call for the administration to begin "a phased redeployment of U.S. forces" by Dec. 31. The nonbinding resolution would not set a deadline of when all forces must be withdrawn.

Sensitive to talk of a divided party, Reid's office circulated a sheet of paper with the headline, "The Bush Republican Plan on Iraq." It was blank except for the title.

The office also floated a memo from a Democratic pollster suggesting that Republicans are going to pay a price in November for standing with the president's war policies.

"A majority of Americans would like to see a deadline to withdraw our forces from Iraq," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. "They are terribly concerned and they're looking for leadership."

Republicans dismissed the idea that voters would punish the GOP on Election Day by ousting them from power.

"I'm sure they wish _ and we all wish _ this could end more quickly but Congress trying to micromanage the war is not going to bring that about," McConnell said.

Democrats played down concerns, voiced privately by some party strategists, that the Kerry-Feingold call for a "hard-and-fast" deadline is hindering Democratic efforts to project a unified position on Iraq for the fall.

"The whole focus is going to be on how George Bush got us into the war and how he gets us out," Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the chairman of the Senate Democrats' campaign committee.

Still, that did not explain why Democratic leaders spent more than a week trying to write a "consensus" proposal. They hoped it would persuade Kerry and Feingold to drop their own, which would set a "date certain" for ending the U.S. combat mission.

In the end, the two potential 2008 Democratic presidential candidates were not swayed.

As a result, two votes are planned _ both set up by Democrats and both likely to give Republicans ammunition just in time for campaign season.

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AP Military Writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.