Democratic lawmakers are calling for U.S. troops to begin pulling out of Iraq within the next four to six months. The incoming Senate majority leader, Harry Reid; the incoming Armed Services Committee chair, Senator Carl Levin; and the incoming Foreign Relations Committee chair, Senator Joseph Biden, all said a phased redeployment of troops would be their top priority when the new Congress convenes in January.

Howard Dean, the chair of the Democratic National Committee on Fox News Sunday: “We need to work with the president to get ourselves out of Iraq. The vast majority of the American people believe the truth, which is that it was a mistake to get into Iraq in the first place. That, the president does not believe. But everybody in America understands that we cannot stay — except possibly the president and Vice President Cheney — understands that we cannot stay in Iraq forever.”