Beyond the Dome

Here's one leftover from yesterday's votes on the supplemental spending bill for Iraq: Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton both voted against a Democratic policy amendment that called for the withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Iraq by June 2009.

Yes, you read that right. They voted no.

Don't get too excited, though. It's not that either one decided they don't want to withdraw troops anymore. They voted against the amendment, according to their Senate offices, because the language was non-binding.

And they had plenty of company. After failing so many times to force President Bush to withdraw troops, Senate Democratic leaders made it just a suggestion this time -- a "sense of Congress" resolution that the mission of U.S. troops should change to counterterrorism, helping Iraqi forces, and protecting the forces from attacks. In doing so, however, they lost the votes of 20 Senate Democrats, mostly the more liberal members of the caucus. With most Republicans opposing it too, the amendment failed badly, winning only 34 votes.

Lots of other Democratic proposals to limit the Iraq war went down with it -- including a requirement that Congress approve any long-term security agreement with Iraq, a cause Clinton has promoted throughout her campaign. But for her and Obama, "Asking Bush Nicely to End the War" probably wasn't the campaign slogan they were looking for.