Thanks to Senators Ben Nelson … and Chuck Hagel. Via AP:

WASHINGTON - Defying a veto threat, the Democratic-controlled Senate narrowly signaled support Tuesday for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by next March.

Republican attempts to scuttle the non-binding timeline failed on a vote of 50-48, largely along party lines. The roll call marked the Senate’s most forceful challenge to date of the administration’s handling of a war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,200 U.S. troops.

Three months after Democrats took power in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the moment was at hand to “send a message to President Bush that the time has come to find a new way forward in this intractable war.”

But Republicans — and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent Democrat — argued otherwise.

John McCain, R-Ariz., a presidential hopeful, said that “we are starting to turn things around” in the Iraq war and that a timeline for withdrawal would embolden the terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere.

The effect of the timeline would be to “snatch defeat from the jaws of progress in Iraq,” agreed Lieberman, who won a new term last fall in a three-way race after losing the Democratic nomination to an anti-war insurgent. Note: Gasp! Ned Lamont was an ‘insurgent’? –ed.

Bush had previously said he would veto any bill containing the timeline, and the White House freshened the threat a few hours before the vote on Tuesday. “This and other provisions would place freedom and democracy in Iraq at grave risk, embolden our enemies and undercut the administration’s plan to develop the Iraqi economy,” it said in a statement.

Democrats won over swing voter

Similar legislation drew only 48 votes in the Senate earlier this month, but Democratic leaders made a change that persuaded Nebraska’s Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson to swing behind the measure.

Additionally, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a vocal critic of the war, sided with the Democrats, assuring them of the majority they needed to turn back a challenge led by Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss.

What happens now?

The House last week voted to approve a $124 billion spending measure that would require most of the 141,000 U.S. troops in Iraq to pull out by September 2008. The Senate legislation, expected to be passed later this week, would have to be reconciled with the House version before being sent to Bush.

Democrats conceded they do not have enough support in either chamber to override Bush’s expected veto. After the vote today, they said they are trying to increase the political pressure on Bush to change course.

“This is not one battle, it’s a long-term campaign to persuade the president, to pressure the president, to change course,” New York Democrat Chuck Schumer said.

He’s already CHANGED COURSE. He’s just not changed it to the “course” Democrats want him to.

Here’s the roll call on today’s vote.

Hey Dems, do us all a favor and stop whining and fund our troops! At least pretend like you support them long enough to get the military the money they need - and without your lame ‘non-binding’ deadline. And take your damn pork out of the bill! This is a war supplemental, not a sugar beets supp!

Update: On a more upbeat note, Bryan at Hot Air reports on some good news from Congress as well as good news for Donald Rumsfeld.