The leaderships scheme involves splitting contradictory measures contained within the massive spending bill and putting them to separate votes in an attempt to placate the divergent wings of an increasingly fragmented party.

The Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi of California, has promised to have a war funding bill on Bushs desk before the end of this month. The House bill is to authorize $162.5 billion in war spendingnearly $100 billion to cover war costs for the current fiscal year, which goes through the end of September, plus tens of billions more to pay for the fighting into the summer of 2009, more than five months after the next president takes office.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat of Nevada) said on Monday that a war funding bill would be brought before the Senate on Wednesday. Reid, however, was less sanguine about the prospects of the legislation being passed before the Congress begins its Memorial Day break.

We are not going to be panicked into completing this, Reid said in remarks delivered on the Senate floor. We know there is enough money to fund the troops for a considerable period after the Memorial Day recess, he continued. Well do our best to get that done, but were not going to be pushed into doing something we dont think is appropriate.

Read More