I thanked him for coming, and for voting against the Iraq War initially, and for the Warner/Levin resolution condemning the surge; but with the CBS recent poll showing 58% of respondents favoring limiting the funds for the war by some deadline or other, I mentioned that as per the discussion on places like Daily Kos (!!), folks were wondering about the rhetoric of Barack Obama and himself which made it sound like the Dems were the ones trying to prevent a fully funded withdrawal from Iraq, when it's George W. Bush who is threatening to veto the funding!

        So, I asked him, could he please comment on this, since it's not just Rush Limbaugh urging a funding vote, but also Russ Feingold and Harry Reid, his fellow senators, who wanted to fund a withdrawal by '08.

        Levin replied that first, people like Rush Limbaugh would take advantage of the "cut funding" idea, and that Rush wouldn't be trying to goad us into it unless he thought it would hurt us; and second, that things like benchmarks (on Iraq improving its performance, etc.--I don't think he mentioned Murtha), troop number caps, etc., were better, or possibly language saying "we will withdraw by 2008" but simply not bothering to mention funding. He seemed adamant that defunding was not a good idea, and that it wouldn't get enough support to pass. (He kept mentioning the 67-vote boundary, although I did note to him that they might not need 67, if it were just to get a funding bill to Bush...)

        He also mentioned that from what he had observed, all the pressure from the Democrats so far was having an effect, i.e., Iraqi politicians are really waking up to the need to clean up their act. (So that pressure, in some form like benchmarks in the bill after the present bill that Bush will veto, would be good.) But he said a funding battle, with a likely Democratic loss, could make us look really bad. And he also said that Harry Reid said something about the Feingold/Reid bill not really cutting funding for the troops, since those troops left behind in Iraq as trainers, al-Qaida hunters, etc., would still be funded. But, Levin said, language in the Feingold/Reid bill does talk about cutting funding for the troops.