WASHINGTON — Democratic congressional leaders, whose efforts to force a withdrawal from Iraq were stymied last month, plan a summer of repeated Iraq-related votes designed to force Republican lawmakers to abandon the White House before the fall.
At the same time, antiwar groups are expanding their campaign to pressure GOP incumbents in their home states.
Both efforts seek to ensure that anxious Republican lawmakers -- many of whom have said they want to wait until September to assess President Bush's Iraq strategy -- get no break from the war over the summer.
"The debate on Iraq will continue," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said last week. Pelosi, who in March helped push Democrats to embrace a withdrawal of American combat forces, has pledged that the House will vote on numerous measures aimed at ending the war.
Tom Matzzie, campaign manager for Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, the leading coalition against the war, promised an equally unpleasant summer for Republicans whenever they return home.
"Our job is to go into the congressional districts of members and create a political environment that is toxic," he said. "The public is there already. It is really about focusing their anger."
In addition to pressuring Republicans, an aggressive legislative agenda also may be crucial for Democrats as they work to recover from party leaders' decision last month to abandon a withdrawal timeline.
Bush vetoed a war funding bill that included a specific date to begin pulling out U.S. forces, and he never wavered from his pledge to veto a second version of the bill if it contained any kind of timeline for withdrawal.
Many Democratic loyalists were infuriated when their party relented and passed a spending bill without timelines.
"To keep the faith, they are going to have to show that they are going to keep up the pressure," said MoveOn.org Executive Director Eli Pariser, whose group has helped lead the grass-roots drive to end the war.
MoveOn.org and other liberal groups blasted Democratic lawmakers who backed the emergency war funding bill.
Republicans, who united with the White House to derail a withdrawal plan they called dangerously irresponsible, cheered the collapse of Democratic unity and continued to criticize withdrawal proposals.
"Signaling a date certain for withdrawal has never been a good policy," said Ed Patru, a spokesman for the House Republican Conference. "Republicans will oppose irresponsible Democrat policies."
