Iraq Debate Will Test GOP Senators' Unity

Republicans say a moment of reckoning may come later this year, when there will be more evidence of whether the president's troop-increase policy is reducing sectarian violence and leading to political accommodation among Iraqi factions. For now, they believe the policy buys time with the public.

Even some of Bush's Republican critics questioned the timing of the Senate action. They want to give Bush's new plan a chance to work. "Let's just watch it for a while, and let's see," said Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.), who is seeking the 2008 GOP presidential nomination and opposed the plan when Bush announced it.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said: "We have a window of opportunity through the end of this year." But at that point, he added, "we've got to have some progress or you're going to start seeing more and more people saying we've got to try something new."

A strategist for one Republican candidate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk openly about the party's problem, said: "If you're a Republican [candidate], you've got to figure it out. The point is running out where you can say, 'I support the president.' Even if you end up with Richard Nixon's secret plan for getting out of Vietnam, you've got to have something."

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, currently seen as the leading candidates for the Republican nomination, all support the troop increase, which has helped to dampen debate about the plan on the campaign trail.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) might have sparked more discussion about the wisdom of Bush's policies had he entered the GOP race on Monday, but his decision to announce that he had nothing to announce, at least for now, leaves the candidates mostly in unity behind Bush's current policy.

"I think there's a belief that this is bigger than trying to figure out the consequences for the primary or the general [election] and trying to nuance your position," said Mike DuHaime, Giuliani's campaign manager. "There's a belief we need to do the right thing and let the consequences be what they may."

Brian Jones, McCain's campaign communications director, said the Arizona senator, who has been a vigorous advocate of sending more troops to Iraq, remains focused on the policy rather than the political consequences.

"Given the new strategy, given that General Petraeus is leading the troops in Iraq, there's an interest in seeing how the new strategy plays out and how the new leadership plays out and positive impact it could have -- and hopefully that it will," he said. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus is the new U.S. commander in Iraq.

A strategist for one GOP presidential campaign said unity among Republicans over the war is to be expected, given the attitudes toward terrorism and national security. But he added that there is a "chasm" between the views of rank-and-file Republicans and of the independents and moderate Democrats whose votes may be needed in 2008.

"It's like two different worlds," he said. "One is the family and the other is the general election, and Republicans are like, 'We'll deal with this later.' "

Staff writer Jonathan Weisman contributed to this report.