WASHINGTON - Anti-war Democrats in the Senate failed in an attempt to cut off funds for the Iraq war on Wednesday, a lopsided bipartisan vote that masked growing impatience within both political parties over President Bush's handling of the four-year conflict.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., left, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., center, and Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., wait for the start of their Iraq news conference, Wednesday, May 16, 2007, on Capitol Hill in Washington. [AP]

The 67-29 vote against the measure left it far short of the 60 needed to advance. More than half the Senate's Democrats supported the move, exposing divisions within the party but also marking a growth in anti-war sentiment from last summer, when only a dozen members of the rank and file backed a troop withdrawal deadline.

"It was considered absolute heresy four months ago" to stop the war, said Sen. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, author of the measure to cut off funds for most military operations after March 31, 2008.

Ironically, the vote also cleared the way for the Democratic-controlled Congress to bow to Bush's wishes and approve a war funding bill next week stripped of the type of restrictions that drew his veto earlier this spring.

Democrats vowed in January to force an end to the war, and nowhere is the shift in sentiment more evident than among the party's presidential contenders in the Senate.

For the first time, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Barack Obama of Illinois and Joe Biden of Delaware joined Sen. Chris Dodd in lending support to the notion of setting a date to end US participation in the war.

Clinton, the Democrats' presidential front-runner in most early polls, has adamantly opposed setting a date for a troop withdrawal, and she gave conflicting answers during the day when asked whether her vote signified support for a cutoff in funds.

"I'm not going to speculate on what I'll be voting on in the future," she said at midday. But a few hours later she said: "I support the ... bill. That's what this vote ... was all about."

Other Democrats were unmistakably clear.

"How many more soldiers do we have to bury? How many more do we have to bring into our military and veterans hospitals? How many more thousands of innocent Iraqis have to die before we finally accept our responsibility to bring this war to an end?" asked Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.

Republicans voted unanimously against the measure, and several judged it harshly. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the GOP leader, said it fixed a "surrender date" for the United States.

There were 28 Democrats in favor of advancing the bill, and 19 opposed.

"An arbitrary cutoff date would take away an important negotiating tool," said Sen. Jim Webb, of Virginia, a Democratic critic of the war elected to his first term last November. He noted that the administration had recently taken steps to engage Iran in diplomacy in hopes of easing the sectarian violence in neighboring Iraq.

The vote occurred as Congress pursued multiple objectives in connection with a war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,400 US troops.

Congressional leaders hope to send Bush legislation by the end of next week providing more than $90 billion to pay for the war through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, and at least part of the reason for the day's events was to give lawmakers an outlet for their unhappiness.

Several Republicans, led by Sen. John Warner of Virginia, proposed legislation that threatened a reduction in reconstruction funds if the Iraqi government fails to make progress toward a series of military and political goals, and provides for outside experts to report to lawmakers on the subject.

"The Iraqi government, it strikes me, needs to understand that they're running out of time to get their part of the job done," said McConnell.

But the same proposal would have given Bush authority to waive the requirement for Iraqi progress, and it drew objections from Democrats as a result.

"It's is really very tepid, very weak," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid .

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