WASHINGTON — Frustrated with the fierce partisanship of the war debate, moderate lawmakers on Capitol Hill are intensifying their drive to craft compromise measures to break the congressional impasse over U.S. policy in Iraq.
Democrats and Republicans involved in the efforts say they want to pressure the White House to change course so American troops can start coming home. But their proposals stop short of setting a withdrawal deadline, the centerpiece of the Democratic legislative campaign to force an end to U.S. involvement in the war.
"There is a lot of frustration out there. People want us to end the war," said Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.). "But what people also want in my state is they want Congress to do something." Salazar has been pushing a proposal to implement the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which last year urged changes in Iraq policy designed to hasten a U.S. withdrawal.
The obstacles to any compromise remain formidable.
Many Democrats, including the influential House Out of Iraq Caucus, continue to believe the only way to end the war is to force President Bush to bring troops home by a specific date.
At the same time, partisan tensions remain extremely high in Washington. The president and Democratic congressional leaders along with their activist allies kept up an angry war of words during the August congressional recess.
But discussions percolating among lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), could portend a new phase of the Iraq debate, which has dominated Congress for much of the year.
"There may be a significant common ground that is not apparent from the political rhetoric or the intensity of the conflict in Congress," said Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.), one of the leading advocates of a bipartisan House plan endorsed by Pelosi to compel the president to report regularly to Congress on plans to redeploy troops.
Pelosi and some of her senior lieutenants have been working since before the recess to develop Iraq legislation that could draw more GOP support and quiet public criticism that the Democratic Congress has failed to change the president's war policies.
"The idea was to peel off Republicans just like we did in the first weeks of the Congress," said Rep. Neil Abercrombie, a Hawaii Democrat who helped craft the measure that English has backed.
