The Senate's Next Decision

Having failed to invoke cloture on S. 547, the resolution opposing the "surge," Senate Democrats will have to consider whether they will allow some version of Senator Judd Gregg's amendment to support the troops (currently S. 641) to be attached to the Senate resolution.

This amendment would "express the sense of Congress that no funds should be cut off or reduced for American troops in the field which would result in undermining their safety or their ability to complete their assigned missions."

It would be something of a move to forestall the Democrats' next steps toward ending the Iraq war. However, I think that if the Senate moves forward with a vote that includes as a core element the disapproval of President Bush's conduct of the war, Senator Gregg's amendment won't matter.

The general sense of what Senate Democrats have to be able to live with if they are to seek cloture is this: a measure that requires every Senator, in some way, to express whether they support President Bush's conduct of the war. It has to be a vote that doesn't let Republicans say they stand for one part of what they voted on but not another part.