Anti-war Democrats in the US Senate on Monday were vowing to force Republicans to stage an all-night vigil to defend President George W. Bush's policy on Iraq.
Democratic majority leader Harry Reid turned up the heat on Republicans after they blocked a vote on a bill that would force Bush to get most combat troops out of Iraq by early next year.
"Blocking an up-or-down vote ... shows Republicans are more interested in protecting the president than our troops," Reid said. "We're going to work today. We're going to work tomorrow. We're going to work tomorrow night."
The marathon all-night debate expected to start yesterday would attempt to force Republicans to allow a simple majority vote on a bill that requires a withdrawal of combat troops to start within 120 days and to be completed by April 30 next year.
Bill sponsor Senator Carl Levin said on Monday that the legislation "would tell the Iraqis that we are going to begin to take a step to force them to take responsibility for their own nation."
"It's long overdue; the Iraqis have been fiddling while their Baghdad capital has been burning. And there is no solution in Iraq other than a political solution," Levin said on the PBS network NewsHour program.
"Why wait for more American lives to be lost?" he said.
The number-two Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin, said that next week could "the most important" in the chamber's current session as the party girds for a full-bore assault on Bush over the unpopular war.
It comes as the White House struggles to keep up support among Bush's Republican allies for his "surge" strategy, which has deployed nearly 30,000 extra troops to Iraq.
Despite a number of defections by high-profile Republicans in recent weeks, Democrats are still thought to be short of the 60-vote super-majority needed to overcome Republican filibuster tactics to stall a vote on the mandatory troop-withdrawal legislation.
Republicans denounced the Democrats' tactic as partisan posturing.
"I think it is theater and bad theater at that," said Senator Mitch McConnell, leader of the Republican minority.
There were new signs on Monday of an intense effort by the Bush administration to repair fraying Republican unity over the war.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice canceled a trip to Ghana this week to stay in Washington to devote her attention to the crisis.
On Sunday, Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley made a string of TV appearances, pushing back at a plan by Republican senior senators John Warner and Richard Lugar for a change of Iraq strategy by January.
Hadley said wavering Republicans should wait for a September report by General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, before expecting plans for a change of mission for the 160,000 US troops in Iraq.
But Warner, with years of experience on military issues, signaled that patience in Congress with Bush was wearing thin.
Asked if the current Iraq mission would pass if it were put up for a vote now, Warner said: "I doubt very much that it would."
Warner and Lugar proposed Congress reauthorize a scaled-back US mission, pulling troops out of the sectarian cross-fire to focus on battling Islamic extremists, train Iraqi soldiers and secure Iraq's borders.
But Warner and Lugar refused to bow to Democrats' demands for an explicit date for withdrawal of US forces, after a week that saw anger rise over meager political progress by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government.
In the House of Representatives, Democrats last week pushed through a bill requiring a troop withdrawal to start within 120 days and be complete by April 1 next year -- but only four Republicans voted with them.
Bush has warned he will reject any timetable for withdrawal but despite the veto threat, Democrats are pressing for more votes to keep up pressure on Republican lawmakers facing a possible voter backlash.
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