Murtha says the surge is working, while Hoyer says the public clearly backs the Democratic view of the war. (Composite image by Politico.com) Democrats: Voters shifting focus from Iraq

Congressional Democrats are reporting a striking change in districts across the country: Voters are shifting their attention away from the Iraq war.

Rep. Jim Cooper, a moderate Democrat from Tennessee, said not a single constituent has asked about the war during his nearly two-week long Thanksgiving recess. Rep. Michael E. Capuano, an anti-war Democrat from Massachusetts, said only three of 64 callers on a town hall teleconference asked about Iraq, a reflection that the war may be losing power as a hot-button issue in his strongly Democratic district.


First-term Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-Kan.) — echoing a view shared by many of her colleagues — said illegal immigration and economic unease have trumped the Iraq war as the top-ranking concerns of her constituents.

In an interview with Politico, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) attributed the change to a recent reduction of violence and media coverage of the conflict, saying there is scant evidence that more fundamental problems with the Bush administration’s policy are improving. Even so, he agreed voters are certainly talking less about the war. “People are not as engaged daily with the reality of Iraq,” Hoyer said.

The change in mood perceived by Democratic lawmakers comes as one of Congress’ most vocal war critics, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), returned from a trip to Iraq and told reporters Thursday that “the surge is working” to improve security, even though the central government in Baghdad remains “dysfunctional.”

On Friday, Murtha, chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, clarified his remarks. The surge, he said, “has created a window of opportunity for the Iraqi government,’’ which he added has “failed to capitalize on the political and diplomatic steps that the surge was designed to provide.”

“The fact remains that the war in Iraq cannot be won militarily, and that we must begin an orderly redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq as soon as practicable,” Murtha said.

Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), who traveled to Iraq with Murtha over the Thanksgiving break, also agrees the surge is working, adding another high-profile Democrat to the list of lawmakers who believe there has been improvement. Like Murtha, though, Dicks still favors troop withdrawal and points out that political reconciliation in Iraq has been a failure.

“There is a sense of normalcy you didn’t see before. In that sense, the surge is being successful,” Dicks said in an interview with the Seattle Times. “But there is no success on political reconciliation. From that standpoint, it’s not working.”

The apparent shift in voter intensity about Iraq, also captured in some polls, shows how dramatically the political context of the war debate has changed from last summer.

Democrats believed then that mounting public pressure would soon force Republicans to take flight from President Bush, allowing Congress to impose a more rapid end to the war on an unwilling administration. It has not happened yet, and if anything it shows Democrats are facing a stiffer challenge at year’s end than they had at the beginning to frame the public debate on their terms.

Hoyer said the public clearly backs the Democratic view of the war: that it was a major foreign policy blunder that must be ended quickly. That is true, based on dozens of public polls over the past year. The diminished attention to Iraq, moreover, could end in an instant with a new burst of violence or other unfavorable turn of events.

For now, however, Democratic leaders are reckoning with a more complex, if fragile, reality both in Iraq and their congressional districts. The military surge ordered by Bush over Democratic opposition is helping pacify pockets of Iraq, according to many official and journalistic accounts, with 175,000 U.S. troops showing at least temporary success in reducing violence and death.

Cooper, who represents a moderate Nashville-area district, said Democrats "shouldn't be against good news" in Iraq. At the same time, even military planners fear the situation could quickly worsen once U.S. troop levels are reduced, or if delicately crafted ceasefires collapse.

For now, voters appear more upbeat as the war’s progress than at any point this year. The nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released a report this week showing that nearly half of Americans believe the military operation is going well — an 18-point increase since February. You have to go back to the days before the last election, in 2006, to find Americans feeling this positively about the war effort.

Still, Democrats are showing no sign of backing down in their fight to demand a swift end to the war. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday said Democrats would continue to resist President Bush’s demand they immediately fully fund his $200 billion request to finance military operations. Pelosi, in a strategy backed by party leaders in both chambers, is pushing for legislation that would provide $50 billion in exchange for a commitment to end the war in about one year.

Anti-war Democrats believe that voters are simply war-weary and have made up their minds about Iraq, so it might not be as hot an issue right now.

“There used to be more [questions about Iraq]. I’m just not getting the calls,” Capuano said. “It’s not because the vehemence has gone down. Ninety percent [of my constituents] are all against the war, but most people have checked this off as a major topic.”

But the fact that Iraq might be slipping as top voter priority, coupled with clear strides in the security situation in Iraq, seems to have reduced the sense of urgency in the political debate.

In fact, Democrats are putting off further debate on the $196 billion supplemental spending bill until February. Meanwhile, Democrats are planning to shift their attention to the economy when they return next week. Democrats are considering holding an "economic summit," and the first order of business in the House will be an energy bill, aimed at elevating discussion of environmental issues.

Boyda, who beat a conservative Republican last year, said: “Generally the feeling in Kansas is get us out of the war but don't do it so fast. Do it responsibly."

The large number of anti-war Democrats, who have been frustrated by their inability to impose limits on the war or end it outright, are concerned their efforts will lose steam as they wrap up the congressional sessions.

Some of those anti-war members worry the changing environment already has had negative consequences at the presidential campaign level. “They’ve been fairly bland, certainly not bold," said Rep. Lynne Woolsey (D-Calif.), a leader in the Out of Iraq Caucus. "Probably they want to be careful — the swing voter and all that. But the swing voters want leadership.”

One House Democratic aide summed up the challenge for the leadership, and admitted that it may be a smart move for Democrats to focus on the economy since they haven't been able to deliver on Iraq.

Republicans plan to exploit any cracks they see in the Democratic message.

“Democrats made a strategic calculation last January that has proven to be dead wrong,” said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). “Their message of failure and retreat makes little sense in light of our troops’ remarkable progress, and the American people are responding to their successes.”

Josephine Hearn and John Bresnahan contributed to this report.