Dems to back down on timeline?

The Raw Story Democrats step back from timeline on Iraq withdrawals Democrats step back from timeline on Iraq withdrawals Published: Monday May 21, 2007 Democrats were Monday poised to drop their insistence on including troop withdrawal timelines in an Iraq war funding bill, in a move which could for now, defuse a standoff with President George W. Bush. Democratic leaders in the House and Senate were still hammering out details of the final bill with Bush aides on Monday, which they plan to send to the president this week after a weeks-long showdown over control of the war. Several congressional sources reported privately that timelines, fiercely resisted by Bush, and the cause of his veto of a previous 124 billion dollar funding bill, would likely not be included. However the bill, intended to finance the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq until the end of September, would include some kinds of benchmarks to force Bush to report on the Iraqi government's progress on security and political issues, sources said. "We have moved the ball forward," said another source, a Democratic staffer, on condition of anonymity. "Whatever bill the president is going to sign is going to contain some kind of benchmarks." Once the bill is passed, Democratic strategists will concentrate on frustrating Bush's war plans in several defense funding bills expected to come before the Senate and the House of Representatives in the next few months. September is also looming as another key point of confrontation, as General David Petraeus, commander of US forces in Iraq, is due to report on the progress of Bush's strategy to add 28,000 troops to US forces in the country.