House votes for more war funds in installments

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Full remarks
May 10: For the first time President Bush shows a sign of compromise on the war supplemental legislation. Watch his entire news conference.

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Complex political environment
Democratic officials, speaking privately, said Pelosi had agreed to allow the vote on the withdrawal measure in the hope that her rank-and-file would then unite behind the funding bill.

But in an increasingly complex political environment, even that measure was deemed to be dead on arrival in the Senate, where Democrats hold a narrow advantage and the rules give Republicans leverage to block legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has met privately in recent days with White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the beginning of talks aimed at producing a compromise funding bill that Bush would sign.

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In a speech in January, Bush listed several goals for the Iraqis, including legislation to share oil revenue among all Iraqis, spending $10 billion on job-creating reconstruction projects, holding provincial elections, overhauling de-Baathification laws and creating a fair process for considering amendments to the constitution.

But in contrast to many lawmakers, the administration has not yet publicly accepted proposals to make future reconstruction funds conditional on Baghdad’s progress in achieving the goals.

Bush and the Democratic leaders were maneuvering in a complicated political environment.

GOP trying to stop future election losses
Republican lawmakers have grown increasingly restive about a war that they believe cost them their congressional majorities in last fall’s elections. In a private meeting with Bush and several key administration officials at the White House, 11 moderate GOP lawmakers bluntly told Bush that the status quo was unsustainable and could mean further election losses next year.

But Pelosi and Reid face obstacles of their own.

They are determined to make sure that essential funding for the war is not cut off. At the same time, they are laboring to keep faith with their own rank-and-file, with the war-weary voters who installed them in power, and with MoveOn.org and other groups whose overriding goal is to force the withdrawal of the U.S. combat troops.

MoveOn.org, in particular, has played a key behind-the-scenes role in the months since Congress convened under Democratic majorities. The group, which played a highly visible role in last year’s election campaign, acquiesced in an early Democratic strategy of seeking approval for nonbinding measures to pressure Bush to change his plans.

In recent weeks, that has changed. Fearing that Democrats ultimately will surrender and give Bush the money he wants, the organization sent Reid and Pelosi a letter saying that if Democrats “appear to capitulate to Bush on Iraq, MoveOn will move to a position of opposition.”