To set a pullout date or not: That is the question

Confronted with rising public opposition to the Iraq war and concerns about tying the military's hands, members of Minnesota's congressional delegation are grappling with the newest development in the war debate.

In a direct challenge to President Bush, House Democrats unveiled legislation Thursday that would require the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the fall of 2008, but even Democrats in Minnesota who have been vocal in their opposition to the war were slow to sign on.

Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., said she favored the plan. But Democratic Reps. James Oberstar, Tim Walz and Keith Ellison declined to say. Ellison said he favored a plan to withdraw troops by the end of this year.

The White House immediately said Bush would veto the House leadership plan, calling it "a nonstarter."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the measure -- to be added to legislation providing nearly $100 billion that the Bush administration has requested for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- would mark the first time the new Democratic-controlled Congress has established a "date certain" for the end of U.S. combat in the four-year-old war that has killed more than 3,100 U.S. troops. ...

Steven Smith, a political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, said Pelosi's plan seems designed to assemble a majority coalition, under difficult circumstances, within public and congressional opinion.

"As I read public opinion, two thirds of Americans oppose the surge [in troops] and are unhappy with the president's policy, but that two thirds is divided down the middle between those who favor immediate withdrawal and those who are looking for something a little bit more gradual," Smith said. ...

•	To set a pullout date or not: That is the question Minneapolis Star Tribune online, Thursday, March 8, 2007 Byline: Bob Von Sternberg, Brady Averill and Eric Black, Star Tribune