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WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Democrats signaled on Friday that they don't see much hope in ending the Iraq war this year so long as President Bush insists U.S. troops remain committed there in large numbers. But party leaders wrote to Bush on Friday anyhow, telling him it's not too late to change course and pleading with him not to leave the war for the next president to handle. "We are deeply concerned that you and the congressional Republican leadership are intent on staying the current course throughout your administration and then handing the Iraq war off to future presidents," the Democrats...

Democratic leaders returned from their spring break this week to declare that Iraq is in turmoil and that they will continue to try to force President Bush to end the war. But facing another uphill battle, party members are undecided on whether to try to cut off money or take a softer approach that is more likely to succeed. They will have to decide soon. Congress has approved only $86.7 billion of the Bush administration's $196.4 billion request for war spending this budget year, which began Oct. 1. Most of the money is required by the military, which says it...

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors say Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion. An indictment in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam's regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary. In exchange, Al-Hanooti allegedly received 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil. The lawmakers are not mentioned but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and...

In May 2003, a little more than a month after President Bush launched his invasion of Iraq, the United States had 150,000 troops there. At the time, Bush declared that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended." We know now that a long occupation was just beginning. For most of the intervening years, U.S. troop levels have hovered between 130,000 and 150,000. Then came Bush's major troop escalation (the "surge"), which brought U.S. troop levels to a peak of 171,000 last October. At the time, Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, told Congress that he expected U.S. troop...

The presidential election presents a clear choice on the Iraq war. Republican Sen. John McCain vows to stay. Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama promise to begin a withdrawal. Still, when asked in New Hampshire if they would promise to have all U.S. troops out by the end of their first term, Obama and Clinton both refused.Since the invasion five years ago, Iraq has delivered enough surprises and overturned enough certainties - and the candidates have left themselves enough wiggle room - that there is reason to believe the United States could still be in Iraq five years...

Once their candidate for president has been chosen, the Democrats will confront two opposing forms of reality that will play a role in their success or failure next November. One evokes their hope of capturing the White House and maintaining control of Congress. The other is a sober warning of a deep-rooted problem they will encounter that could thwart their far-ranging plans. The good news for the Democrats is that the center in American politics has shifted moderately to the left – or (put another way) away from the right and toward a discrediting of the Bush-Cheney era. As The...

The last day of the House's 2007 session last week summed up the turbulence of Nancy Pelosi's history-making first year as House speaker. In the morning, she beamed a wide smile as she stood beside President Bush while he signed an energy bill with the first major increase in fuel economy standards in 30 years. But by Wednesday afternoon, her party was facing two of its biggest defeats. To keep the alternative minimum tax from hitting 20 million Americans next year, Democrats had to abandon their pledge not to pass any legislation that increased the deficit. Then Pelosi, whose party...

<p>It has been a frustrating year for the Democrat-controlled Congress.</p> <p>They came to power on an anti-war ticket but have so far failed to change the course in Iraq or bring American troops home.</p> <p>Despite holding the purse strings, attempts to cut funding for the conflict have been met with the President's veto and an inability to raise enough votes to overturn it.</p>

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., admitted Thursday that she had underestimated the willingness of Republicans to stand behind President Bush’s Iraq policy despite the drubbing the GOP took in the polls in 2006. “The assumption I made was that the Republicans would soon see the light,” she said. Instead, the minority stuck to the president’s war policy in the face of unrelenting pressure from congressional Democrats and powerful lobbying campaigns by anti-war groups. Bush has consistently refused to accept any limitations on his authority to direct military operations in Iraq, or on funds destined for the war effort. Democrats...

Jabbar Magruder is an active duty Army National Guard sergeant who served 11 months in Iraq. He was hoping that stateside Americans would get a glimpse of what the war was like when several dramas featuring the Iraq conflict either in the foreground or the background hit theaters this fall. Few have. Despite A-list casts - including Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones - and generally good reviews, war-related dramas tanked this fall at the box office, failing to attract a substantial audience during Hollywood's serious film season. And now, with the lighter holiday movie fare blanketing screens...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that unless Congress passes funding for the Iraq war within days, he will direct the Army and Marine Corps to begin developing plans to lay off employees and terminate contracts early next year. Gates, who met with members of Congress on Wednesday, said that he does not have the money or the flexibility to move funding around to adequately cover the costs of the continuing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. "There is a misperception that this department can continue funding our troops in the field for an indefinite period of time through accounting maneuvers,...

House Democrats pushed through a $50 billion bill for the Iraq war Wednesday night that would require President Bush to start bringing troops home in coming weeks with a goal of ending combat by December 2008. The legislation, passed 218-203, was largely a symbolic jab at Bush, who already has begun reducing force levels but opposes a congressionally mandated timetable on the war. And while the measure was unlikely to pass in the Senate — let alone overcome a presidential veto — Democrats said they wanted voters to know they weren't giving up. "The fact is, we can no longer...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will vote as early as Friday on legislation that would pay $50 billion for the war in Iraq but require that President Bush start bringing troops home.

Rep. Pete Stark, D-Fremont, has become the Democrats' Ann Coulter - he keeps saying things that aggrandize him while discrediting his political persuasion. Last week, after President Bush vetoed a bill to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program to cover not only poor but also middle-class children, Stark accused Republicans of wanting "to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send them to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement." Speaker Nancy Pelosi rebuked Stark for his "inappropriate" comments. Stark then issued a new statement:...

Washington -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, talking on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the House vote to authorize the Iraq war, acknowledged Tuesday that the failure to end the war is hurting Democrats in Congress and lawmakers will have to take bolder action. The San Francisco Democrat, in a wide-ranging lunch discussion with reporters, said her party's successes in passing domestic legislation - such as raising the minimum wage and helping make college more affordable - were being overshadowed. "It is in fact true, though, that the war has eclipsed everything," she said. "While I'm very proud of...

Washington - -- What is wrong with this picture: Two-thirds of the country oppose the Iraq war, but Democrats again are proving unable to achieve their promised "new direction, and President Bush is certain to keep the maximum possible number of U.S. forces in Iraq for the remainder of his presidency. Iraq is making the Vietnam quagmire look like a sandbox. Facing votes on another $200 billion in war spending and poll numbers that have sunk below Bush's, Democrats readily admit that voters are furious with them. The reason they can't end the war, they say, is that they don't...

IN WASHINGTON, there is a stalemate about Iraq. President Bush continues to stay the course, buying time with surges and promising troop-force reductions if and when the security and political situation merit. The Democrats who control Congress lack the votes to force a withdrawal - and there is reason to wonder whether they would have the stomach to force an abrupt end to the war even if they could do it. It's defense versus defense. Neither party wants the blame for "losing Iraq." So the surge goes on. Even when it ends next summer, 130,000 U.S. troops will remain in...

In 'Planning for Defeat,' the New Yorker's George Packer, one of the first journalists to expose the extent of America's disaster in Iraq, assesses the various options, all unpalatable, now facing the U.S. -- including Democratic calls for a fast, virtually complete withdrawal, beginning now. On the latter, Packer writes: Predictions that a departure will actually strengthen America's position are not so different from the wishful thinking of the Bush Administration. They see only the benefits of withdrawal; they refuse to face the brutal trade-offs that either staying or leaving would impose. A more honest argument says that it's simply...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- After weeks of suggesting Democrats would temper their approach to Iraq legislation in a bid to attract more Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared abruptly Tuesday that he had no plans to do so. The Democratic leader said he will call for a vote this month on several anti-war proposals, including one by Sen. Carl Levin that would insist President Bush end U.S. combat next summer. The proposals would be mandatory and not leave Bush wiggle room, said Reid, D-Nev. "There (are) no goals. It's all definite timelines," he told reporters of the planned legislation. Levin,...

If you believe the Beltway hype, members of Congress will return today to a fiery debate about whether or not the president's so-called "surge" has produced military progress in Iraq. Beltway pundits are breathlessly predicting Democrats will be thrown into disarray by claims that the increased troop levels in Iraq may have produced security results. Don't believe the hype. First off, the data are suspect. The Pentagon refuses to share the methodology by which it arrived at the metrics used to claim success. Even if the progress is real, it is hardly encouraging when put in perspective. When discussing the...