THE WEEK IN REVIEW: WASHINGTON D.C.: Berkley honors the heroes of another war

Sunday, Nov. 11, 2007 | 8:01 a.m.

WASHINGTON - The halls of the U.S. Capitol are increasingly redolent these days of smoky fireplaces, lit up to warm the offices in the chilly, old building as fall turns to winter.

As the temperature dropped into the 40s one night last week, Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley of Nevada joined dozens of others who had queued up on the National Mall to read the names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

This is the memorial's 25th anniversary, and all 58,256 names from the wall would be read during a four-day period, as was done on previous milestones. About 2,000 people and groups had signed up to read. Each received one page with a few dozen names.

Bundled up in her dark overcoat (accessorized, of course, with dashing red gloves), Berkley was handed page 105 on the first night of the reading and got in line.

Waiting in front of her was a high-school-aged girl with page 104. Behind her were two men, a retired brigadier general and a Vietnam veteran, who were sharing the reading of page 106.

As they inched toward the podium, Berkley and the others practiced their assigned names. No one wanted to botch the pronunciation of the names of armed services members who died.

Anyone who has visited the Vietnam wall knows the sense of doom it creates. As you walk along the black granite, the wall gets higher, the names become more numerous. You can't help but feel you're getting deeper into that turbulent period as you walk.

As the Iraq war continues, some would argue the comparisons are easily made. A long war, no clear endpoint in sight, a restive public uncertain why we are fighting. Yet others say that as conditions on the ground in Iraq improve, the war is tipping in the United States' favor, proving that we have been right to stay.

By week's end, the House considered, but ultimately shelved, its latest effort to pass legislation to bring the troops home.

Even if a bill were to come up for a vote, one Democratic strategist said, there is little expectation Congress can change the Bush administration's war policy.

The math has become well-known: Democrats are unwilling to cut off funding for the war, believing it is too severe a move and could harm troops in the field, and Republicans are unwilling to withdraw troops before Bush says they are ready to go.

By the time troops start rotating out in spring, as the defense secretary says logistics will mandate, the Bush administration will have less than a year to go. Presidential contenders will be debating the war policy anew.

Looking to the 2008 election, Republican congressional leaders said this week that although an antiwar electorate boosted Democrats to a congressional majority, the next congressional election is shaping up to be a different battle.

Conventional wisdom gives Democrats the advantage heading into 2008. But Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign said he doesn't expect the wave that swept the nation in 2006 to be repeated.

The results from state and city government elections across the nation last week, Ensign said, proved his point.

"You certainly can't say there looks like there is a tidal wave one way or the other," he told reporters.

Ensign, himself the product of a wave election in 1994, when he was first elected to Congress, now runs the committee trying to elect Republicans to the Senate. His job is by many measures one of the most difficult electoral gigs in Washington this cycle, with nearly two dozen seats to defend.

"We very rarely have nationalized elections across the country," Ensign told reporters. "I think it's setting up to be more of a traditional election for 2008, which is what I've been saying all along."

Berkley bristled when asked later about the comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam.

She had opposed the idea of an Iraq troop withdrawal at the beginning of the year but grew to support her party's efforts. Conditions in Iraq worsened, withdrawal bills came forward and political momentum turned in favor of what Democrats were trying to do.

For Berkley, reading the names wasn't a political statement, but a personal one. It was part penance for being able to live her life as a young UNLV student during the Vietnam War, part memorializing of those who fought for the country.

"The Vietnam War was my war, and I always felt guilty that I had been in college and these kids who were my contemporaries were getting killed in a faraway land," she said later in the week between votes in the House. "It was important to do this to pay tribute."