The Democrat dominated Congress and the Republican President George W Bush hinted at readiness to compromise on the Iraq war issue. This is significant taking in to view the simmering confrontation between the two on the Pentagon’s $124 billion Iraq war expenditure bill and unilateral timetable set by the Congress for withdrawing American troops. Last week, both parties were adamant on vetoing each other’s plan on the ongoing war in Iraq. Even the hawkish President issued an overt warning to the Congress to veto any submission by it for troop withdrawal from Iraq. But now, Mr. Bush showing inclination to talk with the Congressional leaders, sent them an official invitation to meet at the White House on Wednesday. The President said: I invite the leaders of the House and the Senate, both parties, to come down, you know, soon after my veto so we can discuss a way forward. The Democratic dominated Senate is profoundly anti-Bush since its inauguration. Their firm opposition to the misdirected Iraq war by the Bush administration has been consistently expressed in house debates. They openly held that they remained unswerving to change direction of Iraq war. However, responding positively to the talk offer by Mr. Bush, they also showed a proclivity to negotiate. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, talking to reporters in New York on the annual policy retreat of his party said, We are legislators. We understand legislation is the art of compromise, consensus building. We are willing to sit down and talk with the president, but we have certain things we believe to be important to the country. I’m sure he does too. The Republican legislator also showed their eagerness to break a deal between the Capitol Hill and the White House in national interest. Dan Bartlett, a ranked Republican said, We’re entering a different phase in which I think the statements have been made, the votes have been cast and while the president still has the responsibility to veto this bill, today’s statement demonstrates that he’s looking beyond the veto to how we can get the funding to our troops. The willingness by the Democrats to conciliate with the White House is expected by many as they don’t have the required two-thirds majority in the Senate to override a presidential veto. Yet, many of their leaders are still adamant make the attempt. Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, in his capacity as the majority leader, appealed the lawmakers to supersede the expenditure bill as early as Tuesday. To bring out an understanding, Republican leaders are trying their best to compromise between president’s call and Democrats’ desire. Now the disagreement between the White House and Democrat dominated Capitol Hill on the Iraq issue has entered in to a new phase of negotiation. The world is eager to know how the president’s calls for supporting a spending bill to finance the troops’ needs would be negotiated with Democrats’ yearning to act on an anti-war mandate they received in the November congressional elections. The most common way appears to set yardstick goals for the Iraqi administration to meet in the coming months and passage of the war footing bill with advisory but non-binding call for troop withdrawal within a time frame.
May
12
