BIDEN’S QUIET RESOLUTION

One path to a solution to Iraq for the United States could be seen in a Senate vote last week – not in the contents of the nonbinding resolution senators overwhelmingly supported, but in the fact that they could come together on a bold idea strongly opposed by the White House.

The resolution, proposed by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., supports a weak Iraqi central government and stronger federal regions for Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis. The idea is to give the factions physical space to live more peacefully while maintaining Baghdad as the center of the federal government in charge of border security and oil revenues. Not only does the Bush administration oppose this, the Iraqi government recently condemned the Senate’s vote.

The measure passed 75-23 anyway, with both Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins in support. A lesser reason for this is that the idea is a well-intentioned, well-supported attempt to end, or at least greatly calm, the violence in Iraq. Sen. Snowe said she supported it because it sends “a positive message that a political settlement should be sought by Iraqis under the constitution they have written for themselves.” Sen. Collins said the “resolution respects the sovereignty of the Iraqis and their right to determine a form of government of their choosing, but reflects my increasing concern over the lack of political progress by the Maliki government.”

But perhaps a more important reason the resolution passed so strongly was that the politics of Iraq are unusually absent from this specific issue. No one is holding a protest march either for or against what is being characterized as a “soft partition” of Iraq. Majority Leader Harry Reid, who refuses to allow what would be a successful vote on a bill endorsing the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, doesn’t oppose this measure. No politician is going to see his or her poll numbers jump or fall by having an opinion about it. Sen. Biden, in fact, has been pushing this idea for years without much reaction.

Yet, there is the Senate, with 26 Republicans joining nearly all Democrats, including Sen. Biden’s presidential primary contender, Sen. Hillary Clinton, calling for a new configuration of Iraq. What’s telling is that when the political pressure lowers, the Senate’s ability to cast a vote unpopular with those most affected increases. (Compare that with the House, which this week passed a bill that requires President Bush to release a plan for withdrawal – Democrats voted for it while calling it a sell-out; Republicans voted yea while saying it was a waste of time.)

And despite the nature of a Senate resolution, at least Sens. Biden and Brownback have offered a new strategy in Iraq that would require fewer U.S. troops and might give all sides a chance to restore services to civilians, improve police performance and devise ways to better distribute oil revenue. Whether partition serves a long-term interest is unclear.

The vote on the Biden resolution doesn’t let the Senate off the hook on tougher questions. It just shows that sometimes quiet politics can be more effective than loud.