the coming week when some of the president's request for Iraq is likely to be attached to a more than $500 billion government-wide spending bill in the Senate.

This will allow Democrats to finish much of the budget process before the end of the calendar year.

But the President and his Republican allies will have succeeded once again in blocking Democrats from making more money for the war conditional on a timetable for troop withdrawal.

In an interview on public television on Thursday, the speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, acknowledged that her party has not been able to attach a timetable for withdrawal.

She said the Democrats can only do so much and that the Presidential election in November 2008 will make all the difference on the war.

Related Stories

The U.S.military says coalition forces in northern and central Iraq have killed four suspected militants and detained 18 others during a series of operations targeting al-Qaida since Friday.
The military says coalition troops captured three suspected militants during one of the raids in Baghdad early Saturday. It says one detainee is believed to have been involved in extremist activity in the Arab Jabour area.
The military also announced the death of an American…

Democrats took control of Congress for the first time in 12 years in 2007, promising to fulfill an ambitious legislative agenda and to change the course of the unpopular war in Iraq. They conclude the year accomplishing few of their key priorities, including affecting the course of the war. VOA's Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill.
President Bush offered his