Hill Reeling From Iraq Debate

With Midterm Elections Looming, Lawmakers Fear Backlash Over Public Clash

(CBS/AP)  Washington is still reeling from a stunningly raucous debate on Iraq policy late Friday night in the House of Representatives, reports CBS News correspondent Joie Chen.

Late Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected calls for an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq, a vote engineered by the Republicans that was intended to fail. Democrats derided the vote as a political stunt.

"Our troops have become the enemy. We need to change direction in Iraq," said Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a Democratic hawk whose call a day earlier for pulling out troops sparked a nasty, personal debate over the war.

In Asia, President Bush offered a firm rejection of the Democratic hawk's call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller reports.

But Mr. Bush quoted a top U.S. commander in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William Webster, as saying a pullout deadline would be a "recipe for disaster." Mr. Bush says as long as he's president, Iraq policy will be driven by what he calls the "sober judgment" of commanders on the ground.

Some analysts say Mr. Bush's response has taken the shine off his statesmanship, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent John Roberts.

"I think he hasn't helped himself as a statesman over the last week and I think even the domestic audience will wonder whether the president should be engaged in such personal attacks when he's overseas representing the united states of America," said Derek Mitchell of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

His speech was cheered by troops crowded into a hangar at Osan Air Base south of Seoul. Bush stopped in following the Pacific Rim summit in the southern port of Busan.

The House voted 403-3 to reject Friday a nonbinding resolution calling for an immediate troop withdrawal.

"We want to make sure that we support our troops that are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. We will not retreat," Speaker Dennis Hastert, said as the Republican leadership pushed the issue to a vote over the protest of Democrats.

It was the second time in less than a week that Mr. Bush's Iraq policy stirred heated debate in Congress. On Tuesday, the Senate defeated a Democratic push for Mr. Bush to lay out a timetable for withdrawal.

Meanwhile, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has submitted a plan to withdraw a quarter of American combat forces (video), bringing the overall number of troops in Iraq down to below 100,000 by the end of next year.

Murtha, a 73-year-old Marine veteran decorated for combat service in Vietnam, issued his call for a troop withdrawal at a news conference on Thursday. In little more than 24 hours, Hastert and Republicans decided to put the question to the House.

Democrats said it was a political stunt and quickly decided to vote against it in an attempt to drain it of significance.

"A disgrace," declared House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat. "The rankest of politics and the absence of any sense of shame," added Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat.