House resolution pans Bush Iraq policy

One outspoken supporter of the deployment, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., characterized the Senate action as a "partisan stunt." The presidential contenders was in Chicago and told reporters he intended to keep his campaign schedule in Iowa rather than return to the capitol for the debate.

"I think it's an insult to the public and our soldiers to pretend we're discharging our responsibilities to them when all we're doing is debating a meaningless, meaningless resolution," McCain said.

The House vote portends a larger battle next month, when Bush's request for a $93 billion supplemental Pentagon spending measure will come before Congress. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who heads the subcommittee that oversees military spending, said he plans to offer legislation that will put such strict standards on deployments — requiring that troops spend one year at home between combat tours, for example — that Bush will have no choice but to start bringing troops home.

"They won't be able to continue," the former Marine said in a Webcast on an antiwar site. "They won't be able to do the deployment."

Republican critics said that Friday's vote was a purely political statement and that the smaller-than-expected number of Republican defections meant a compromised victory for Democrats.

"This was a political vote that gave members who wanted to be on the record that they didn't support the war, to be on the record," said Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., who held Murtha's post on the House panel until January.

Nevertheless, the vote marked the completion of a dramatic turnaround from the fall of 2002, when the House acquiesced, 296-133, to Bush's request to authorize military action in Iraq.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., said, "There have been over a half a dozen votes in the United States Congress that have rubber-stamped the president's policy in Iraq. This is the first vote in a four-year war that rejected the policy."

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Contributing: Chicago Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson