An January 18 New York Post article claimed that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) call for “a cap on the number of U.S. troops in Iraq” was part of “an effort to please her party's liberal base,” suggesting that only a small minority of people -- the liberal base of the Democratic Party -- supports restricting the president's authority to send more troops to Iraq. But polling on the subject has demonstrated that support for congressional action to stop President Bush's troop increase goes beyond the Democratic Party's “liberal base.”

According to a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll conducted January 13-16, 51 percent of Americans would like Congress “to try to block Bush from sending more troops to Iraq,” while 41 percent held the opinion that “Congress should not attempt to stop Bush.” Although 51 percent represents a very narrow majority, it exceeds any reasonable calculation of the size of the Democratic Party's “liberal base.”

Similarly, a USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted January 12-14, found that 47 percent of respondents were in favor of “the Democrats in Congress taking active steps to block the deployment of more U.S. troops to Iraq” including “denying the funding needed to send the additional troops,” while 51 percent opposed.

In addition, a poll conducted January 10-15 by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 61 percent of respondents “oppose Bush's plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq,” and, of those, 69 percent (or 43 percent of total respondents) believe that “Congress should try to block Bush's plan by withholding funding for the additional forces.” That 43-percent support for congressional action to stop a troop increase came in a poll in which only 35 percent of respondents identified themselves as Democrats.

Also, according to pollingreport.com, a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll taken January 11 asked the following question:

Congress may consider several different resolutions on President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq. Some resolutions would take steps to prevent this, while other resolutions would express opposition to the plan, but not attempt to block it. Suppose Congress considers a resolution which would take specific steps designed to prevent the U.S. from sending more troops to Iraq. What would you want your members of Congress to do? Should they vote to allow the U.S. to send more troops to Iraq or vote to prevent the U.S. from sending more troops to Iraq?

Sixty-one percent of respondents answered “prevent,” while only 36 percent answered “allow.”