WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- With House approval of an Iraq resolution and continued debate in the Senate, President George W. Bush was getting set Thursday for a pre-election, personal-appearance blitz in support of Republican candidates nationwide.
Bush hopes to break the logjam on his legislative agenda in the next Congress.
The House of Representatives, in a 296-133 vote on Thursday afternoon, passed the resolution authorizing military action against Iraq if deemed necessary.
"This is a debate and decision that all Americans can be proud of," Bush said afterward. "I'm also pleased with the progress being made in the Senate, and I look forward to a final vote soon.
"The House of Representatives has spoken clearly to the world and to the United Nations Security Council, that the gathering threat of Iraq must be confronted."
Bush said the vote also sent a clear message to Saddam Hussein to disarm and obey other U.N. resolutions, that there "are no other options."
The passage of the resolution follows weeks of public debate over possible use of force against Iraq. Included in the debate were charges the president was using the issue for political gain, something the White House denied.
The majority of Democrats voted against the measure, which was co-sponsored by House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo.
The White House, looking ahead, said the president would spend only two days next week in the White House. The rest of the work week would be spent on the road.
In the final two weeks before the Nov. 5 balloting, Bush will be on the hustings each day, it said.
"Obviously, with the Congress as closely divided as it is -- a Congress that has failed to act on a great many priorities for the American people, including helping the economy to recover and grow by creating jobs, passage of homeland security -- every vote in the Congress counts," spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
"So he will spend some time on the road working to build support for candidates who share his vision."
The precise schedule hasn't been announced. But on Monday, the president will visit Detroit, according to the White House.
Michigan is a key state in presidential elections with its 18 electoral votes. Republican Gov. Bob Engler is vacating his seat due to term limits. His lieutenant governor, Dick Posthumus, trails the Democratic candidate, Jennifer Granholm, by 12 points in the latest polls.
This year, 36 gubernatorial races are being contested.
Republican National Committee sources said that likely states where GOP candidates could be on Bush's short list for promotion include South Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, New Hampshire, Tennessee, North Carolina, Texas, New Jersey and Florida.
The historical pattern in mid-term elections is for the party that does not occupy the White House to pick up Senate and House seats.
But this year, the kitchen-table, bread-and-butter issues -- jobs, inflation, Social Security -- that favor Democrats have been generally elbowed aside in the headlines by the war on terror and the possibility of war with Iraq.
Debate on an Iraq resolution in the Senate, where there is more opposition to granting Bush broad authority to act against Iraq to blunt its program of obtaining weapons of mass destruction, was expected to wrap up no later than next week. Passage of a resolution of support, however, is expected.
"The president appreciates the strong showing of support in the House and the Senate that is shaping up for what appears to be the final votes on the resolution to authorize the use of force against Iraq," Fleischer said earlier Thursday.
"The president hopes that this vote will send a strong message to Iraq and to the world that if Iraq does not comply with United Nations resolutions, the United States and our allies are prepared to use force to make certain that Iraq does comply so that the peace can be kept."
Fleischer said that the United States is continuing a dialogue with some other members of the U.N. Security Council -- France, Russia and China -- to gain a strong U.N. resolution compelling the Iraqi leader to comply with previous resolutions and spelling out the consequences if he does not.
"We're working on a diplomatic level in how to find common agreement on how to express those consequences," Fleischer said.
France, Russia and China have said they do not favor a new resolution that would authorize force against Iraq at this time. Only Britain has stood with the United States to date.
Washington wants a single resolution compelling Iraq to adhere to resolutions it signed at the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
"The president thinks that there is a good possibility that Congress, having spoken and spoken strongly, the American people coming together and our nation speaking in one voice, will send a signal to the United Nations and the United Nations Security Council that President Bush and our people are united in the belief that a strong resolution is the most effective way to keep the peace, and that the United States and our allies are prepared to take action if the United Nations will not," Fleischer said.
He said if the United States acts militarily, it would not act alone but in coalition with other nations. He declined, however, to list those countries or their possible contributions to a U.S. effort to disarm Iraq and effect a regime change, which is official U.S. policy.
