Resolutions

As the House this week launches its first major debate over the Iraq war since the November elections, Democrats are counting on many Republicans to join them in passing a resolution opposing President Bush's troop buildup. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, a Maryland Republican, predicts that 30 to 60 of his colleagues will back the nonbinding resolution, which would be the strongest repudiation of Bush's Iraq policy from Republicans since the war began nearly four years ago.

A month after President Bush announced plans to boost troop levels in Iraq, he will largely remain on the sidelines as the House begins the first major debate on the war since Democrats assumed control of Congress after the November election. While Democratic leaders work to build Republican support for a short, symbolic resolution opposing the troop increase, the White House has eschewed a major public lobbying effort to get Republican lawmakers to stand behind the president.

Amid accusations that it would give comfort to America's enemies, the California Senate approved a resolution Tuesday calling for a halt to boosting the number of troops in Iraq or spending any more taxpayer dollars on the war without explicit approval from Congress. The resolution was introduced by state Sen. Carole Midgen (D-San Francisco). She said she would amend the resolution, approved 22 to 14, before it reached the state Assembly to include a stronger message of support for the troops.

One by one they stepped to the front of the House chamber Tuesday, where lawmakers have debated every major U.S. military conflict since the Civil War. There was the Iraq veteran elected to Congress in November who is pushing for an end to a war he said was "immoral." From the other side came the stepmother of a Marine pilot who warned that any retreat in Iraq would aid only "the suicide bombers, the leaders of Al Qaeda [and] the rulers of Iran."

In a striking display of dissension, a group of Republican lawmakers broke ranks with the White House on Wednesday and embraced a resolution opposing more U.S. troops in Iraq -- airing their criticism even as President Bush publicly defended his plan. Bush questioned the message that expected House approval of the nonbinding resolution would send, saying at a news conference: "People are watching what happens here in America. The enemy listens to what's happening.

As rhetoric heated up in the House on Thursday over a measure to protest President Bush's buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq, Senate leaders moved toward a new showdown over conducting a similar debate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) -- whose bid to bring up a nonbinding resolution opposing the troop increase has foundered for nearly two weeks -- decided to have senators work in a rare Saturday session to revisit the issue.

The House debate this week on the war in Iraq was marked by emotional commentaries and dire warnings about the costs of escalating the U.S. commitment or reducing it. On Friday, the deliberations ended with a new element: an audience. During most of the four days consumed by the rhetorical face-off, lawmakers filed into a mostly empty House chamber to deliver their speeches.

After four days of contentious debate, the House on Friday repudiated President Bush's decision to send more U.S. troops to Iraq -- the first official challenge by the Democratic majority on Capitol Hill to his management of the war. The nonbinding resolution expressing disapproval of the troop buildup passed 246 to 182, largely along party lines, with 17 Republicans joining 229 Democrats to back what amounts to a rare wartime rebuke of a commander in chief.

Senate Republicans on Saturday blocked a Democratic effort to pass a symbolic resolution opposing President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq. Democrats, who hold a narrow majority in the Senate, fell four votes shy of the 60 needed on a procedural vote to consider the nonbinding resolution. They did pick up the support of seven Republicans -- five more than on an earlier vote on a similar measure -- suggesting they may be in a stronger position for future challenges to Bush over the war.

The New York City Council declared the n-word off-limits in a purely symbolic resolution prompted by the common, casual use of the slur in hip-hop music, comedy and street slang. "People are using it out of context," said Leroy Comrie, a black city councilman who sponsored the unanimously passed measure. "People are also denigrating themselves by using the word, and disrespecting their history." New York's resolution is not binding and merely calls on residents to stop using the slur.