Democrats: Drive To End War Isn't Over

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday the Iraq spending bill is a disappointment because it does not end the war, but that it's only a matter of time before Democrats get their way.

"I think the president's policy is going to begin to unravel now," said Pelosi, D-Calif.

The speaker's predictions come after a bruising loss for Democrats who wanted to tie months of war funding to a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawals. President Bush vetoed an early version of the bill that would have ordered troops home this fall; lacking the votes to override his objections, Democrats relented and on Thursday helped pass a $120 billion bill that funds the war through September.

President Bush signed the bill into law Friday at the Camp David presidential retreat where he is spending part of the Memorial Day weekend. In announcing the signing, White House spokesman Tony Fratto noted that it came 109 days after Bush sent his emergency spending request to Congress.

Democrats say the fight is far from over.

"We're going to keep coming back and coming back," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the Democratic caucus.

In the months ahead, lawmakers will vote repeatedly on whether U.S. troops should stay and whether Mr. Bush has the authority to continue the war. The Democratic strategy is intended to ratchet up pressure on the president, as well as on moderate Republicans who have grown tired of defending Bush administration policy.

"I feel a direction change in the air," said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House panel that oversees military funding.

The war spending bill provides some $95 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and billions in domestic projects, including more than $6 billion for hurricane relief. The House voted 280-142 to pass the bill, followed by an 80-14 vote in the Senate.

Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama both voted against the bill.

"I fully support our troops" but the measure "fails to compel the president to give our troops a new strategy in Iraq," said Clinton, D-N.Y.

"Enough is enough," Obama, an Illinois senator, declared, adding that Mr. Bush should not get "a blank check to continue down this same, disastrous path."

Their votes continued a shift in position for the two presidential hopefuls, both of whom began the year shunning a deadline for a troop withdrawal.

Thursday's legislative action capped weeks of negotiations with the White House, which agreed to accept some $17 billion more than Mr. Bush had requested as long as there were no restrictions on the military campaign.

"If all funding bills are going to be this partisan and contentious, it will be a very long year," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said.

The Senate will go first when it considers a defense policy bill authorizing more than $600 billion in military spending. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, plans to offer an amendment that would order troop withdrawals to begin within 120 days.

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said he would press to repeal the 2002 resolution authorizing combat in Iraq.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said Thursday that if the security situation in Iraq does not improve by mid-July, the president should consider adopting a new strategy there.

"It seems to me it's time for them (Iraqi troops) to ... step up," said Warner, R-Va.

The most critical votes on the war are likely to be cast in September when the House and Senate debate war funding for 2008. The House plans to consider one measure that would end combat by July 2008 and another intended to repeal Mr. Bush's authority to wage war in Iraq.

The September votes likely will come after Iraq war commander Gen. David Petraeus tells Congress whether Mr. Bush's troop buildup plan is working. Also due by September is an independent assessment of progress made by the Iraqi government.

"Those of us who oppose this war will be back again and again and again and again until this war has ended," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.

The U.S. has spent more than $300 billion on Iraq military operations so far, according to the congressional Government Accountability Office.