No compromise in offer to Democrats

Two weeks after congressional Democrats invited President Bush to negotiate over timetables for withdrawing troops from Iraq, the president issued his own invitation Tuesday “to meet with me at the White House.”

But he made it clear that he wouldn’t compromise.

“At this meeting,” Bush said in a speech at American Legion Post 177 in Fairfax, Va., “the leaders in Congress can report progress on getting an emergency spending bill to my desk. We can discuss the way forward on a bill that is a clean bill, a bill that funds our troops without artificial timetables for withdrawal.”

Democrats didn’t phone the White House for an appointment.

“I ... prided myself on being a pretty good lawyer,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters half an hour after the president’s speech. “I’ve settled lots and lots of cases. But you never settle a case going in saying, ‘You can come and meet with me, but here’s what the result’s going to be before we meet.’ That doesn’t work.”

And so the Iraq standoff between the Republican president and Democratic legislators continued for another day, with each side accusing the other of playing politics with money that is vital for the troops.

Last month, Democrats in the House and Senate narrowly passed emergency spending bills that set timelines for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq, a key move that they argue will force the Iraqi government to take more steps to reduce violence and bridge sectarian divisions.

“The essence of what we’re proposing ... is a refocus and a change of missions,” said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), a leading architect of the Democratic legislative campaign to end the war.

The House and Senate plans -- which set different dates and conditions for a withdrawal -- require the Iraqi government to meet benchmarks demonstrating progress.

They also allow a limited number of U.S. forces to remain in Iraq to protect American personnel, train Iraqi forces and conduct limited antiterrorism operations.

Bush and his Republican allies in Congress have repeatedly said such an approach would undermine U.S. counterinsurgency efforts now underway to control violence in Baghdad and elsewhere.

The president has issued nearly daily threats to veto any bills that, as he said Tuesday, “substitute the judgment of politicians in Washington for the judgment of our commanders on the ground.”

Bush wants Democrats to send him a bill without conditions.

Two weeks ago, it was Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) who cast themselves as the accommodators but sent Bush an invitation to “sit down and work together” laced with jabs.

“You apparently intend to follow a political strategy that would needlessly delay funding for our troops,” the two Democratic leaders wrote in a letter that also accused the president of having failed to provide adequate funding for the military and to care for veterans.

The White House never replied, according to Reid’s office. “They never respond to our letters,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley said.

Bush’s response Tuesday didn’t suggest that he had spent the last two weeks looking for a warm way to reciprocate.

Seconds after saying that he wanted to host legislators at the White House, the president said the Democratic leadership was “irresponsible” and “bent on using a bill that funds our troops to make a political statement.”

And using a rhetorical tactic often employed by Republicans to irk their partisan foes, the president criticized “Democrat leaders” before correcting himself and adding the suffix.

“When it comes to funding our troops, we have no time to waste. It’s time for them to get the job done,” the president said.

Reid responded with his own challenge.

“He should read our legislation,” Reid said. “We’re trying to be reasonable.”

noam.levey@latimes.com

james.gerstenzang@

latimes.com