In Washington

WASHINGTON — Anti-war Democrats in the Senate failed in an attempt to cut off funds for the Iraq war on Wednesday, a lopsided bipartisan vote that masked growing impatience within both political parties over President Bush’s handling of the four-year conflict.

The 67-29 vote against the measure left it far short of the 60 needed to advance. More than half the Senate’s Democrats supported the move, exposing divisions within the party but also marking a growth in anti-war sentiment from last summer, when only a dozen members of the rank and file backed a troop withdrawal deadline.

"It was considered absolute heresy four months ago” to stop the war, said Sen. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, author of the measure to cut off funds for most military operations after March 31, 2008.

Ironically, the vote also cleared the way for the Democratic-controlled Congress to bow to Bush’s wishes and approve a war funding bill next week stripped of the type of restrictions that drew his veto earlier this spring.

Bush’s pick for ‘war czar’ must deal with clash among officials running the Iraq war

WASHINGTON — The Army general chosen to be President Bush’s "war czar” brings an impatience with bureaucracy to the job of meshing military and civilian policy in Iraq.

That could serve Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute well as he referees skirmishes between the Pentagon and State Department, often at cross-purposes in the troubled war.

"He’s good at understanding broad issues and following through to make sure things get done,” said retired Maj. Gen. William L. Nash. "And he’s got leadership.”

Lute, 54, will have to cut through bureaucracy and respond quickly to requests from U.S. military commanders and ambassadors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since September, he has headed operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During his time at the Pentagon, Lute has shown a skill for trying to speed up decisions on proposals from the field rather than letting issues languish in debate, colleagues said.

He is seen highly qualified, knows the region, has worked well with those in Iraq and Afghanistan, "and is one of the more objective voices in dealing with the Iraq war,” said Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"It is hard to believe that General Lute will not have a positive impact,” Cordesman said.

That impact, however, will be limited.

Military experts inside and outside the government say his appointment does not necessarily promise faster progress or an earlier homecoming for U.S. troops.

"His ability to change things will be marginal at best — the problems are too big,” said Nash, now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Iraq is gripped by violence and its government is making slow progress on the political and economic issues that the Bush administration had hoped would help calm the country.

On top of that, every past "czardom” has failed because of resistance within federal departments, Cordesman said.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Wednesday there "sometimes are turf wars and jealousies and that sort of thing anyplace in government.” Lute, he said, would be "there to assist” officials in meeting their common goals.

"This has always been a team effort,” said David Satterfield, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s top adviser for Iraq. "That will certainly continue. Doug Lute is very well known to all of us.”

Asked whether he feels Lute’s post is needed, Satterfield said Bush wanted the position created, "and so it has been.”

There was considerable discussion of Lute during the morning senior staff meeting Wednesday at the State Department, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private.

One view was that Lute understands the realities in Iraq and might be able to convey the difficulties of the issues to Pentagon officials who, diplomats say, do not always get it.

Lute’s appointment is subject to Senate confirmation.

Lute has a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Military Academy and master’s in public administration from Harvard University. His other jobs have included director of operations for U.S. Central Command and deputy director of operations at U.S. European Command.

"He will do a lot,” predicted Lutfi Haziri, Kosovo’s current deputy prime minister and mayor of Gnjilane while the town was in the U.S.-controlled sector under Lute’s command.

Lute and Haziri shared meals and patrolled the town together several times over the six months in 2002 when Lute served in Kosovo.

"He supported strongly the politics of ethnic integration and decreased to zero ethnic incidents,” Haziri said Wednesday in Kosovo. He said Lute had a "commitment to enforce peace which distinguished him from the others.”

Lute is also known as a straight-talker, which helped when he handled daily briefings in Iraq and Afghanistan for former Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid.

Like Abizaid, Lute has said a large U.S. troop presence only fosters Iraqi dependency. Lute was a skeptic of sending more troops to Iraq as Bush decided to do early this year to try to control violence in Baghdad.

Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, said Lute made sure that national security adviser Stephen Hadley knew of his earlier doubts, but Lute now believes it is the correct strategy.

Lute would serve as an assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser, maintaining his military status and rank as a three-star general.

It is no secret that as the White House struggled for months to find someone for the job, some retired generals were offered the post and turned it down.

As an active-duty general, Lute would have found it harder to say no.

The choice of a uniformed czar has raised concerns about a tilt even more toward the military when there is agreement about the need to do more on the political and economic fronts in Iraq.

Military officials discussing the job said it leave Lute with no budget, no clear policy role, no command authority and the excruciating duty of delivering the president’s initiatives to generals who outrank Lute.

Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Lute will have the authority he needs.

Nash said Lute, as a "relatively junior office,” will have a "Clash of the Titans” struggle involving the secretaries of defense, state, treasury and others departments and deal with higher-ranking service chiefs and commanders in the field.

But, he added, the White House job should give Lute good access to Bush as well as Vice President Dick Cheney — and "that should trump all.”

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EDITORS NOTE: Associated Press writers Jim Krane in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Garentina Kraja in Pristina, Serbia; and Anne Gearan and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.