WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., a vocal supporter of the Iraq war, called for a bi-partisan congressional council on Iraq to help make policy decisions.
Lieberman, once a Democratic presidential candidate, said in a speech Monday he would want the council to meet weekly with members of the president's war cabinet and frequently with President George W. Bush to discuss developments in Iraq and try to achieve consensus on policy decisions.
"A bipartisan war council could greatly improve our prospects for success in Iraq. Our troops on the battlefront deserve and require support and solidarity from the homefront. Our enemies deserve to be shaken by it. Our allies need to be encouraged by it. And our founding ideals will be so much better served by it at home and in Iraq," Lieberman said at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
He said the war continues to have bi-partisan support despite "poisonous rhetoric" from critics.
"The question is no longer why we got in, but how we win in Iraq," Lieberman said.
He warned if partisan rancor on the war continues, it could break the bipartisan "consensus."
