Bush offers domestic olive branch to save resolution on military action

George Bush put on a display of conciliation and bipartisanship yesterday in a bid to prevent a row between Republicans and Democrats from derailing a tough congressional resolution authorising US military force against Iraq.

A day after the normally mild-mannered Democratic Senate majority leader Tom Daschle exploded in rage at Mr Bush's "politicisation" of the Iraq crisis, the President appeared in the White House rose garden, flanked by congressmen of both parties, to pour oil on the already very troubled waters.

The security of the United States was "the commitment of both political parties and the responsibility of both elected branches of government", Mr Bush said, urging a "deliberate, civil and thorough" discussion. The White House and Congress were moving to "a strong resolution", he said.

Mr Daschle's outburst was provoked by accusations at election rallies by Mr Bush and the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, that Democrats, particularly in the Senate, did not care about national security. It reflected his party's seething frustration at how Iraq has taken over and stifled the campaign for the mid-term elections, now five weeks away.

Instead of the faltering economy and corporate misbehaviour, issues on which Republicans are vulnerable, the confrontation with Saddam Hussein dominates all.

In countless campaign trips President Bush has made to support Republicans, his standard stump speech is two-thirds Iraq and a third on domestic matters.

Many Democrats agree with Robert Byrd, the influential West Virginia Senator, who said: "This war strategy seems to have been hatched by a political strategist intent on winning the mid-term election at any cost." Yesterday, Mr Daschle took up the White House olive branch, saying, in essence, that bygones should be bygones. But the party is split, with many liberals believing the war momentum must be slowed, if not stopped.

The broadside from the former presidential candidate Al Gore against Mr Bush has complicated matters. Mr Gore, despite his loss in 2000, remains the best-known Democrat apart from the Clintons, and is mulling a possible campaign in 2004. He outflanked more cautious Democratic leaders such as Mr Daschle and the House minority leader, Richard Gephardt, both weighing a White House run in two years.

Mr Bush, with Republicans almost to a man behind him, and the Democrats divided, will get the tough congressional resolution he needs to show a divided UN Security Council he has broad national backing for a go-it-alone war to topple President Saddam.

The White House has played its domestic hand cleverly. The draft resolution sent to Capitol Hill last week was criticised by many Democrats as a "blank cheque", endorsing action elsewhere in the Middle East, beyond Iraq. But the administration indicated it would accept a narrower resolution.

The resolution will be passed before Congress goes into pre-election recess, at the latest by mid-October, leaving the Democrats free to focus on issues that serve them better.