Sen. Richard Lugar’s call this week for a redeployment of U.S. troops in Iraq reflects the thinking of several other Republicans who have visited Iraq, talked with commanders, with Iraqi officials and with the troops. What makes his comments noteworthy is who Sen. Lugar is and why he is speaking out now.

The Indiana Republican, who is the current ranking member and former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, proposes that the Bush administration recognize that the lack of political progress in Baghdad and the growing sectarian and nonsectarian violence suggest that the surge will not make adequate progress by September. That’s when Gen. David Petraeus is scheduled to update Congress on the war, and Congress expects to decide whether a new strategy is required.

Sen. Lugar says don’t wait – expand diplomatic efforts, reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, pull those remaining out of Baghdad and station them around Iraq where fewer of them will be killed. They would continue to train Iraqi soldiers and continue missions outside Baghdad, but the message to the Iraqi government would be clear: It must make progress on the governmental benchmarks it has pledged to meet. He also says, wisely, that he wants to work with the president to make these changes rather than rely on confrontation, which has been unsuccessful to date.

The reasons for not waiting until September are that members of Congress already can see and the administration concedes that progress will not be adequate by September. Meanwhile, more U.S. soldiers would be killed. And the early start to the presidential election means the political parties have only a short time to work together before everything is pushed through the filter of how it will affect the vote in November ’08.

Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich seconded Sen. Lugar’s remarks the next day, and other Republicans have quietly agreed. Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins have been more vocal – they already have backed benchmarks and timelines for redeploying troops. Sen. Collins this week observed that Sen. Lugar’s “judgments carry great weight among those of us who are his colleagues, and I hope that the president will listen carefully to his advice.”

With the Baghdad Security Plan now moving outside Baghdad and the political surge nowhere in sight, Sen. Snowe asks, “Why wait another month to effect a change we know should take place now? The public and people here [in Washington] have reached their limits in terms of patience.” Sen. Lugar’s comments, she said, “suggest the tide is turning and it will be difficult to stem the opposition” in Congress.

The Senate is scheduled to take up defense appropriations shortly after the July 4 recess. Moderate Republicans will be counting heads then to see whether they have the numbers to begin overhauling the strategy in Iraq. Sens. Lugar, Snowe and Collins will be key to this drive – and watch to see what Armed Services ranking member Sen. John Warner of Virginia does. If he works with the others in acknowledging the lack of progress in Iraq, serious negotiations with the White House will begin. As they should have months ago.