Republicans Dare Dems To Cut Iraq Funds

ABC News’ Z. Byron Wolf Reports: Democratic Senators are hatching, planning and discussing a new effort to repeal the 2002 Iraq war authorization as part of their efforts to end the war in Iraq.

The entire Democratic caucus is going to take a look at the idea next Tuesday. However, Republican leaders are already criticizing it.

The United States is in Iraq, said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY., during a conference call with reporters today, and repealing the President’s right to use force would be like trying to "un-ring a bell."

The top Republican in the Senate said that after the Democrats were unable to find 60 votes for a non-binding resolution disapproving of the President’s surge strategy, they were now looking for the "goldilocks solution" — the one that’s just right, like porridge, said Sen. McConnell.

Sen. McConnell also questioned whether Democrats would have the Constitutional ability to de-authorize the war.

"It’s a murky area as to whether or not congress could, in effect, micromanage the war," Sen. McConnell said. "I would think that no court would want to have to arbitrate that and I would think that no administration would pay any attention to it."

Republicans have also taken to accusing Democrats of employing a "slow-bleed" strategy for Iraq to end the war incrementally — first opposing the surge and then micromanaging the President.

Sen. McConnell argued that if they really want to end the war, Democrats should instead focus on the power over the President that Congress is granted in the Constitution — the power of the purse.

"If the democrats are serious about stopping the war, the supplemental appropriations that will fund the war is the vehicle," McConnell said. "Its coming along in a month. They don’t have to wait a long time to have a vote on the real thing."

This, of course, is a dare. McConnell doesn’t think the funding should be cut off and he doesn’t think the American people would stand for Democrats cutting off any funding. So he is inviting them to do it at every opportunity.

If Democrats seek a vote on their de-authorization legislation, Sen. McConnell has pledged to bring up a companion vote that would pledge funding for the troops, just as he did with the anti-surge resolution.

Such a resolution is expected to get more votes than any Democratic proposal to de-authorize the war.

"We have to have a fair debate on Iraq. And you can’t have a fair debate on Iraq without talking about funding the troops," said Sen. McConnell.

McConnell said he would insist on this companion vote even if Democrats tried to offer their de-authorization as an amendment to the supplemental funding request that the White House has sent to Congress to fund the wars.

If that becomes the case, Sen. McConnell would have to essentially filibuster the troop funding to make the point that the troops should be funded.

On the flip side, Democrats –if they continued to deny Sen. McConnell his vote on the funding resolution — would accuse him of holding up funding for the troops. However, they would probably not mention that they were doing it so that they, themselves, wouldn’t have to pledge to fund the troops.