A Daunting 3 Weeks Ahead for Congress

With the presidential campaign in full swing, how the Senate will handle any moderately controversial legislation is a mystery -- even to Democratic leaders. "As the Democratic whip, I'm making a list and checking it twice," Durbin said.

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In the Senate, where schedules are famously unreliable, leaders have to jump at any opportunity to hold final votes. On Nov. 8, at 11 p.m., when such a window opened suddenly to confirm Michael B. Mukasey as attorney general, not one of the five presidential candidates was on hand to vote.

Earlier in the day, all five also missed the first veto override of the Bush presidency, when Congress salvaged a water projects law. And only Biden was on hand the week before for final passage of a bill expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

"They understand they might have to drop what they're doing and fly in for a vote," Durbin said. He noted that the Democratic candidates hopped a red-eye flight after the Nov. 15 debate in Nevada to make a 9 a.m. vote on Iraq war funding. Clinton then turned around and flew to the West Coast.

Even before the sprint to the Iowa caucuses, the senator-candidates have been increasingly absent from the chamber. McCain has missed more than 53 percent of roll call votes this year and has not cast a single vote since Oct. 24. Biden, Dodd and Obama have missed more than a third of all votes this year, according to washingtonpost.com's congressional database. Clinton has missed just 18 percent of votes, but was on hand for only three days of voting in the month leading up to the Thanksgiving recess.

Dodd has vowed to be in Washington when the Senate takes up wiretapping legislation -- because he has promised to filibuster any version that offers telecommunications companies retroactive immunity from lawsuits for supplying the administration with telephone and e-mail records.

But his staff has expressed hope that the issue not come up until January. By then, Dodd's long-shot campaign may have been derailed and he would once again be a full-time senator.

Republicans said the bigger decision facing Democrats is whether to compromise on issues such as wiretapping and AMT or dig in their heels, knowing Republicans will filibuster their measures or Bush will veto them.

"Do you want the issue or do you want the accomplishment?" asked Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Democratic leaders and aides said they are likely to push for a quick vote on a measure to stave off the AMT's growth, paid for with unspecified tax increases. If that fails to win the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster, as expected, Democrats will charge Republicans with opposing fiscal discipline, then quickly pass a tax measure that will add to the budget deficit, Durbin suggested.

The wiretapping bill will be more difficult. The existing law, which actually expanded the president's surveillance authority for six months, does not expire until February, giving Congress some time to act. But if lawmakers punt again, they will return to Washington in mid-January after their recess with just days to act.

On the spending measures, Republicans privately acknowledge a deal could be cut that would allow some level of additional spending on domestic priorities for Democrats -- who currently have set the measures at $11 billion above Bush's request. To achieve that, however, they must provide the administration $50 billion in "bridge" funds for the Iraq war without any timelines for the withdrawal of troops attached.

But Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have adamantly said no such war funding will pass without a timeline for withdrawal of combat forces by the end of 2008.

Reid spokesman Jim Manley said Democrats will again offer war funding legislation with a withdrawal timeline but acknowledged that it will not pass the Senate. The Pentagon says it will have to send notices to some 200,000 Defense Department civilian employees and contractors by Christmas, warning of furloughs in February, if Congress fails to act.

Republicans argue that time is on their side. If Democrats cannot approve a wiretapping measure or any Iraq bridge funds, the Senate will have to take up those issues when the chamber reopens for business Jan. 22. That is just nine days before the current FISA law expires and one month before furloughs would take affect at military bases across the country as the Pentagon would be dipping into its already approved $470 billion fiscal 2008 budget to pay for the war.

Republicans believe those pressures favor Bush, who will argue that intelligence operatives would lose their ability to spy on Osama bin Laden and military employees would lose their jobs because of Democratic inaction.

"That's real, and I don't think they've realized that yet," Stewart said.