Unease Over Iraq Becoming an Issue for 2006 .

President Bush's policy in Iraq faces growing criticism in Congress, and now it is figuring into the early stages of the 2006 midterm elections. Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) launched his campaign for the Senate last week with a television commercial saying it's time to figure out how to start bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq.

Against a patriotic backdrop of U.S. servicemen and women, Ford praises U.S. military forces and then invokes the Fourth of July to conclude by saying, "Let's work hard to bring them home soon, and with honor, and make them as proud of us as we are of them."

Ford's decision to lead off his campaign in military-friendly Tennessee with a message playing on public impatience with the U.S. mission in Iraq suggests that politicians are sensing a shift in public opinion toward Bush's policy. The Democratic House member said he believes he is on solid ground politically by focusing attention on ending the U.S. mission there.

"Since September 11 [2001], the country and Congress have given the president the benefit of the doubt, from the Patriot Act to the efforts in Afghanistan to the resolution on Iraq to now the war and postwar efforts," Ford said in a telephone interview. "Now many people are realizing that a new approach and some new ideas are needed."

Ford anticipates attacks from GOP opponents questioning his support for the military but said he's prepared to defend his defense credentials in the coming campaign.

"I've supported our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan unflinchingly since 9/11," he said. "I think the greatest threat our policies face in Iraq is diminished public support. . . . I don't live by surveys, I live by what people are saying. I've traveled all across our state, and I'm hearing it from Republicans and Democrats alike."

(6-16-05, The Washington Post.)