Next, Reid stretched his authority in a way that I have not seen in a half-century of Senate-watching. He decreed that, besides the Warner resolution (now co-sponsored by Sen. Carl Levin, his Democratic successor as Armed Services Committee chairman), the Senate would vote on one Republican resolution. What made this unique was that Reid dictated that the one amendment would be not Gregg's but Sen. John McCain's, which endorsed the troop surge and could not command close to 60 votes. The Gregg amendment probably would have gotten 70 votes.
McConnell convinced Republicans that they could not let the Democratic leader pick their amendment. Reid on Monday got only 49 votes (including but two Republicans, Susan Collins and Norm Coleman) for imposing cloture on taking up the issue. Warner and Sen. Chuck Hagel, the toughest Republican critic of the surge, voted no on cloture. The Democratic caucus informed Reid Tuesday that it would not accept a compromise putting both the Warner and Gregg resolutions before the Senate. Reid set aside the whole issue rather than permit a vote that would divide and embarrass Democrats.
"Mitch McConnell is a master behind the scenes, but he has a lot to learn about going public," said a Senate Republican insider who did not want his name used. Appalled by Tuesday morning's headlines, Republicans regrouped that day by delivering a substantive message. McCain was particularly vigorous, antagonizing Reid and other Democrats by contending that anti-surge resolutions say to U.S. troops that "we think they are going to fail, and this is a vote of no confidence."
Democratic senators, given their message of the day, trooped onto the Senate floor to claim Republicans had blocked debate over Iraq. That claim might seem peculiar to C-SPAN watchers who this week listened to hours of debate over the war. The true Democratic complaint was that Republicans prevented Harry Reid from ordering parameters of that debate. The minority in the Senate, unlike the House, has rights it exercises even if Republicans characteristically have trouble explaining this to the public.