Dems Reject Bush Iraq Plan

Sept. 12, 2007 — -- Calling President Bush's anticipated announcement Thursday to end the surge the "illusion of change," Senate Democrats called again on Republicans to break with the White House on Iraq policy next week.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "The president is dug in and unwilling to realize that his strategy places all the burden on our military, and its not working.

"His plan is neither a drawdown or a change in mission," Reid said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. "His plan is more of the same. It keeps at least 130,000 troops, American troops, in the midst of a civil war. That is unacceptable to me. It's unacceptable to the American people. I hope the Senate Republicans realize it's time to come over and work with us."

Read more on the Bush plan here

Reid probably has his sights on Republicans like Virginia Sen. John Warner, who is retiring after 2008 and, while he has criticized the president's policy, has never supported a Democratic withdrawal plan.

Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman has also never voted with Democrats, but at yesterday's Foreign Relations Committee hearing, he told Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of forces in Iraq, that Americans want to see "a light at the end of the tunnel."

Coleman faces a tough re-election battle in 2008. Democrats will find themselves wooing the centrist votes of Republicans and have every intention of using the war as a campaign issue before the '08 general election.

It is a tough political game, a less binding Democratic plan that could gain some support from Republicans but at the same time cost the votes of liberal lawmakers.

Reid would not describe specifics of what Iraq policy amendments Democrats would offer to the defense policy bill that will be on the Senate floor next week, but he said Democrats would reach out to middle-of-the-road Republicans uncomfortable with the president's leadership on Iraq.

This would be a new political strategy for Democrats, who in past months have tried to force waffling Republicans to support mandating withdrawal of combat troops or nothing at all.