WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said a deal was imminent between leaders of both parties to resume talks on beginning discussion over the timetable for the commencement of dialogue concerning the cessation of debate about the merits of a non-binding, bi-partisan resolution on the Iraq War. Leaders of both parties had expressed concern that the Senate was heading into a quagmire of rhetoric, making withdrawal from the issue difficult, if not impossible. Senator Carl Levin, (D-Mich.) expressed his dismay to reporters outside of his office. “I warned everybody who would listen before we got into this thing that we didn’t have a way out. We’ve been bogged down for weeks going over the same territory, and never getting anywhere.”
Others, however, were more sanguine. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, (R-Ky.), shared Senator Reid’s optimism. “We’re not going to cut and run,” he said. “We’re going to keep talking about finding an appropriate time to start talking about the one thing everybody is talking about, and that is the war in Iraq.” McConnell rejected a call by some members of his party to establish a subcommittee to investigate possible benchmarks that must be met by the Senate on measuring progress towards bringing an end to the topic. “I don’t think that would accomplish anything,” he said. Then he paused, and stroked his chin. “But I’d certainly be willing to talk about it.”
