A battle of the branches over war

WASHINGTON — With Congress in its spring recess, President Bush on Monday lashed out at Democrats over a war-funding bill and criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria in what has become an escalating battle over U.S. foreign policy between two of the three branches of government.

Bush warned during a Rose Garden news conference that a prolonged standoff over the war-spending bill, which he pledges to veto because it includes timelines for withdrawals of U.S. troops from Iraq, could jeopardize the delivery of equipment to troops on the front lines and delay the training of new soldiers, in turn forcing troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan to serve longer stints there.

"In a time of war, it's irresponsible for the Democrat leadership in ... Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds," said Bush, counting his 57th day since delivering a war-spending request to Congress.

While calling on Congress to "come off their vacation" and quickly tackle "emergency" war needs, the president was heading to his Texas ranch today for a spring retreat of his own through Easter.

Commenting on Pelosi's visit, Bush said, "We have made it clear to high-ranking [U.S.] officials, whether they be Republicans or Democrats, that going to Syria sends mixed signals."

The Bush administration says Syria has aided terrorists and played a significant role in destabilizing the Middle East.

Pelosi, who arrived in Syria on Tuesday and plans to meet with President Bashar Assad today, is the most prominent U.S. official to travel there since the administration rolled back diplomatic ties in early 2005. The San Francisco Democrat shrugged off Bush's criticism, pointing out that the White House was silent over the weekend when three Republican congressmen — Reps. Frank Wolf, of Virginia, Joe Pitts, of Pennsylvania, and Robert Aderholt, of Alabama — were in Syria and met with Assad.

"I think that it was an excellent idea for them to go," Pelosi said. "And I think it's an excellent idea for us to go as well."

Pelosi appears eager to implement one of the key recommendations of last year's Iraq Study Group, the advisory panel headed by Republican James Baker, who served as secretary of state under Bush's father, and Democrat Lee Hamilton, a former House member from Indiana. As part of its recommendations for quelling the violence in Iraq, it called on the United States to open a dialogue with Syria. Although Bush praised the panel's efforts, he ignored many of its suggestions, including the revised policy toward Syria.

Pelosi, who stopped in Israel on Sunday, said she planned to press Assad not to aid militant Hamas and Hezbollah groups in the Middle East and to support Lebanon's democratically elected government. The White House views Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups that operate with assistance from Syria and accuses Assad of attempting to cause turmoil in Lebanon.

Pelosi also plans stops in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Her delegation includes the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., and Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., David Hobson, R-Ohio, and Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim member of Congress.

The trip is Pelosi's second to the Middle East since Democrats took control of the House in January.

She addressed the Israeli Knesset on Sunday, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he asked Pelosi to carry a message to Assad that his nation will engage in talks with Syria if Syria backs away from its support of terrorist groups. Pelosi's office declined to comment about that.

Pelosi also visited Lebanon and met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Pelosi, second in line to the presidency after Vice President Dick Cheney, is the highest-ranking American to visit Syria since Colin Powell went there as secretary of state in May 2003.

Last month, the United States attended a conference on Iraq that Syria and Iran joined. The meeting marked the first time that the U.S. officials met in Baghdad with representatives of Syria and Iran to discuss Iraq's future.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who visited Syria last year, defended Pelosi's trip.

"Effective foreign policy often requires talking with countries who aren't our friends," he said.

But Danielle Pletka, of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, disagreed.

"There has always been a battle between Congress and the White House over foreign policy," she said. "The issue here is not about foreign policy. The issue is about standing with enemies of the United States to score cheap political points."

The dispute about Pelosi's trip came amid a simmering conflict between the White House and Congress over Bush's request for more money to pay for the Iraq war. The House and Senate bills approving the request include the timetables for troop withdrawal.

Democrats plan to send the president a supplemental spending bill to pay for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan once they resolve differences between the House and the Senate, and they expect a veto over the withdrawal timelines.

At his news conference, Bush continued his attack on those conditions and stressed that they have no chance of becoming law because of his veto.

"Congress should not tell generals how to run the war," he said. "Enough politics."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., responded that Bush would bear the blame for a continuing stalemate on war funding. If he carries out his veto threat, Bush "will have delayed funding for troops and kept in place his strategy for failure" in Iraq, Reid said.

Their attempt to override the veto is expected to fail, and once that happens, Reid plans to introduce legislation cutting off funding for the war altogether after March 31, 2008. Although that appears destined to fail, Democrats said they want to keep the pressure on Republicans to change course in Iraq.

The Democrats, betting that the U.S. public is on their side in an unpopular war, are casting Bush as the one delaying needed funding for troops in the field by refusing to negotiate over House and Senate funding bills that set differing conditions and timelines for combat-troop withdrawals: next March in the Senate's version, September 2008 in the House version.

With both sides hardening their positions, the outcome of this struggle over a $120 billion-plus war-spending bill could either give the Bush presidency a needed boost or continue Bush's decline in the polls. With about one in three Americans voicing approval for the job Bush is performing, nearly two-thirds support the timelines for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq that Senate and House leaders are pressing, opinion polls show.

Compiled from Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg News and USA Today