Dems to Inherit Agenda Dominated by War

Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., second from left, accompanied by her husband Paul, left, pauses to pay her respects by the casket of former President Gerald Ford in the Capitol Rotunda on Capitol Hill in Washington Monday, Jan. 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Gerald Herbert - AP)

Marshall and Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., who also visited Iraq during the Christmas holiday, reported that some progress was being made in Anbar province where Iraqi security forces and local leaders were collaborating to push out al-Qaida fighters. But, Skelton said, violence in Baghdad has accelerated and additional U.S. troops might not help.

"I will look carefully and with an open mind at any proposal the president may make, but my view remains that removing some number of American troops _ however small _ would send a more powerful message to our Iraqi partners than raising force levels," Skelton said.

The debate will play out in hearing rooms this month. Skelton and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who will head the Senate Armed Services Committee, have invited Defense Secretary Robert Gates to testify. Levin said he would like that hearing to take place Jan. 11.

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has promised to testify before his committee after Bush makes his announcement.

Democrats say they also want to hear from independent military experts and members of the Iraq Study Group.

The debate also will play out in Congress's review of the president's spending requests for the war. The Pentagon says it needs an additional $99.7 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan until the end of the current fiscal year in September. That request is expected to arrive on Capitol Hill in February.

Democrats are eyeing ways to attach conditions to war funds that won't hurt troops and may even attract Republican support.

John Podesta, former President Clinton's chief of staff and now president of the liberal Center for American Progress, recommends lawmakers demand in that spending bill that the president seek lawmakers' approval if troop levels exceed 150,000 in Iraq.

Democrats in 2007 may be confronted with another politically sensitive Iraq issue regarding whether to support increased involuntary call-ups of Guard and Reserve troops. In December, Schoomaker warned that the Army will break without adding more active-duty soldiers to the ranks and changing current mobilization policies backed by Pentagon civilians.

The issue of allowing lengthy involuntary deployments is a tricky one for lawmakers who want to reduce the pressure on active-duty forces but also hear from reservists that they too are facing serious hardships.

Biden and other Democrats agree that Iraq will dominate much of their work next year, but contend they must not be blamed for a war run ultimately by the president. "This is President Bush's war," Biden said.

But political experts say the public might not agree.

"When you're in the minority, you don't have to do much more than criticize the status quo that wasn't working," said Norman Ornstein, a scholar with the American Enterprise Institute. "When you're in the majority, people will look to you for leadership."