Out of Iraq, but ‘in the neighborhood'?

Republicans have 22 Senate seats up for re-election next year, compared to only 12 Democratic-held seats.

At least six GOP incumbents are in some jeopardy, partly due to the war in Iraq.

McConnell himself is up for re-election next year; he won his fourth term in 2002 with nearly two-thirds of the vote.

Like McConnell, another GOP leader Rep. Adam Putnam, who ranks third in the House Republican hierarchy, stressed his interest in a bipartisan approach Tuesday.

Putnam said that based on reports he’d gotten from GOP House members who had trekked to Iraq in the past few weeks, “there was a feeling that progress is being made, not only militarily but at the grassroots political level as well.”

When will all U.S. troops leave Iraq?

But he added, “There’s a continuing frustration with the lack of progress at the national political level.”

Is there a way for the United States to deal more and more with local officials in places such as Anbar province and put the Maliki government somewhat to the periphery?

A plan with 'bipartisan parentage'
“There appears to be an emerging approach to that, which to be honest, has a bipartisan parentage,” Putnam replied. “Instead of putting all your eggs in (the basket of) a strong national government, having a national government that may look more like Articles of Confederation than the Constitution.”

Putnam said this approach “has some roots” in the plan for a federalized Iraq that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden has been talking about for months.

The GOP search for a bipartisan accord comes at a time when Democratic leaders are facing continued pressure from their own grassroots activists to pass some legislation forcing a pullout of U.S. troops.

“The popularity of Democrats in Congress is dwindling as they allow the Iraq occupation to continue,” said Tim Carpenter, president of Progressive Democrats of America in an e-mail to his supporters Tuesday, urging them “to flood the offices of our (Democratic) members of Congress with calls demanding an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.”

It remains to be seen how important a factor disgruntled anti-war Democratic voters will be in next year’s elections and whether the disenchantment voiced by Carpenter will result in depressed Democratic voter turnout.

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