Tea party, liberal coalition fails to revoke Iraq war authorization

An unusual bipartisan coalition of liberals, moderate Democrats and tea party-backed senators failed on Tuesday evening to revoke the 2002 authorization for war in Iraq.

By a 30-67 vote, the Senate rejected an amendment by libertarian-minded Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that proponents said would have officially declared the Iraq war to be over. The 25 Democrats who voted for it included liberals like Barbara Boxer of California and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Even the four Republicans were all over the map ideologically, like tea party favorite Jim DeMint of South Carolina, conservative Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada and Maine moderate Olympia Snowe.

Twenty-four Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid, joined 42 Republicans including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Maine moderate Susan Collins and independent Joe Lieberman in opposing the plan, which would have forced the president to return to Congress and seek additional authority to send more troops to the country.

Manu Raju is senior congressional reporter for Politico.