Rival rez on Iraq

For those of you following the debate over whether the Senate will pass a resolution against the proposed increase of US troops in Iraq, here’s a new development….

Call it a fig leaf, call it a sincere alternative, but a different bipartisan group of senators is on Monday planning to introduce their own "Sense of the Senate" resolution expressing opposition to the surge but doing so using different — probably softer – language than the resolution offered Wednesday by Sens. Joe Biden, D-Del., Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and quickly signed on to by Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

Sens. John Warner, R-Virginia, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., are preparing to on Monday afternoon introduce their rival resolution. The three have met a few times in their Senate offices and they came to an agreement late last night as to the outline of their bill; over the weekend they will work via telephone on the precise language, with Warner, former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, taking the lead.

All three have expressed concern about the troop surge, but many Republicans have taken issue with some of the language in the Biden/Levin/Hagel bill — "escalation" being one of the words in question, since such diction is regarded by Republicans to have taken on a partisan Democratic connotation, similar to the way "surge" is regarded by Democrats to be Republican spin.

Will this bill be a fig leaf for anti-surge Republicans to weakly go on the record opposing the surge but doing so in a meek way so the President can ignore he bill? It all will depend on the language of the as-yet-unwritten Nelson/Warner/Collins bill. But Republican surge opponents may be more inclined to sign on to the Nelson/Warner/Collins bill than that of Biden/Levin/Hagel, which the White House is assiduously lobbying against — non-binding and symbolic though it may be.

A senior Senate aide affiliated with the Biden/Levin/Hagel bill says that this development will not necessarily be a big problem. "All those three truly care about is a resolution that puts people on the record one way or another as to whether they support deepening our military invovement in Iraq and increasing our troop presence there," the aide says. "That’s all that matters: there needs to be a clear statement about whether Senators are for or against sending more American troops to end the civil war in Iraq."

Biden himself on Wednesday said in response to GOP criticisms, that "this is a process. If you have 10 Republicans saying, I don’t like the word ‘escalate’; I like the word ‘increase,’ or whatever, that’s not a problem. …there’s no pride of authorship in the use of specific words. And we’re prepared to do whatever it takes to send two messages: One, Mr. President, do not send more troops. It would have the exact opposite impact you intend. Two, Mr. President, the answer lies in a political solution inside Iraq."

– jt (with additional reporting by Z. Byron Wolf)