Democrats put on back burner legislation ordering troops home from Iraq

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WASHINGTON, OCT 10 (AP): Congressional Democrats have put off action on legislation that would order US troops home from Iraq and are turning instead to other war-related proposals that Republicans are finding hard to turn down.
The legislative agenda marks a dramatic shift for party leaders who vowed repeated votes to end combat and predicted Republicans eventually would join them. But with Democrats still lacking enough votes to bring troops home, the party runs the risk of ending its first year in control of Congress with little to show for its tough anti-war rhetoric.
"We can no longer approach the discussion on Iraq as a partisan issue," said Rep. John Tanner, a conservative Democrat from Tennessee. "Our soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and Guardsmen aren't fighting as Democrats or Republicans but as Americans."
In the past week, the House of Representatives passed two bills intended to curb misconduct by contractors in Iraq and one proposal by Tanner and fellow Democratic Rep. Neil Abercrombie that requires updates on the Bush administration's plans for the eventual withdrawal of US combat forces.
Following last week's rejection of a proposal by Sen. Russ Feingold, also a Democrat, to cut off money for combat, the Senate is expected to reject as well similar bipartisan measures. Delayed until early next year is debate on the $190 billion (euro135.4 billion) the military says it needs to keep fighting the war through September 2008.
Democrats say they still are challenging President George W. Bush on the war, even though their proposals lack the power to bring troops home.
These "are important steps this Congress is taking to clean up the mess in Iraq," said Abercrombie, speaking of two bills that would make it easier to convict private contractors working abroad.
There is little doubt that Democrats are biding their time and deliberating their next step. Democrats are divided on whether to continue paying for a war they oppose, or to cut off the money and be attacked politically for refusing to support the troops.
They also hope that Republicans will grow increasingly nervous about the war's effect on the 2008 elections. Democratic Rep. John Murtha, who chairs the panel that oversees military funding, predicted last month that Republican lawmakers would abandon the president after preliminary voting for next year's elections end.