Politics at Play in Dems' Iraq Maneuvering

    When two Democrats looking toward 2008 pushed hard for a firm date on withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, they crashed headlong into Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid's effort to retake the Senate this year.

    Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin want to pull out all combat forces over the next year, a proposal that delights the left wing of the Democratic Party but that failed overwhelmingly in the Senate on Thursday.

    That 86-13 vote forced Democrats in difficult midterm election campaigns, such as Sens. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Maria Cantwell of Washington, to go on record on the question of ending the military mission in Iraq - and risk the wrath of liberals in their states.

    Bucking pleas from party leaders, Kerry and Feingold insisted that the Senate vote on their proposal. That created a political headache for Reid, who had been trying to rally Democrats around a more moderate Iraq resolution - one that called for troop withdrawals but didn't include an end date - in hopes of uniting the party and maximizing its chances of retaking the Senate in November. The Democrats need six seats for the majority.

    Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who's in charge of the Senate Democrats' campaign efforts, told Democrats that he did not want Kerry's proposal to come up for a vote because it would put moderates running this year in a tough spot. The fate of candidates like Lieberman and Cantwell is never far from Schumer's mind, and he only wanted a vote on Levin's resolution.

    Over the course of two weeks, officials said, senators repeatedly asked Kerry not to push for a vote. Under pressure, he wavered at one point but ultimately decided to follow through.

    Reid, for his part, held his regular meeting last week with his rank-and-file up for re-election this year, and Democratic officials said he pitched them Levin's resolution.

    At one point, Republican officials said Reid told them he was trying to discourage Kerry from pushing for a vote on his proposal. After they heard this, Republicans brought up Kerry's proposal and quickly dispatched it


These guys know they need to be on the center on terrorism if the want to win. However, they need to cash from moveon.org and the Kos kiddies if they want to raise millions of dollars. The end result is that the democrat politicians inevitably find themselves taking both sides of defense issues.

In short, they're screwed.