Senate Fails To Shut Down Iraq War

The latest Democratic effort to force a change in war policy failed Thursday afternoon, this time by an even greater margin than Wednesday's defeat of the Webb amendment.

An amendment by Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.) that would have mandated a troop redeployment and eventual cutoff in funding by next summer was rejected by the Senate on a 28-70 vote.

The measure was clearly going to fail but Democratic leaders still wanted to get the vote on the record

Notably, three Democratic presidential candidates who were present voted in favor of the measure: Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.)and Sen. Obama (Ill.) all voted yes, while Joe Biden (Del.) was absent.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (Nev.) once again framed the debate as Republican blocking the will of the majority.

"The fact is the Republicans have stopped us from enacting policy supported by the majority of the House and Senate and by far the American people."