Democratic Congressman Tim Walz and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman were on opposite sides of legislation Wednesday night and Thursday morning setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, but they agreed that the issue needs to be revisited in coming months.

The legislation to continue funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which passed the House Wednesday and the Senate Thursday, is certain to be vetoed by President George W. Bush because of his objection to the requirement that a draw-down of troops from Iraq begin by Oct. 1 if certain benchmarks are not met.

Following the veto, Walz said he will push for a funding bill that takes care of the needs of the troops for 90 days — forcing a review of the status of the war this summer. That sort of oversight is a crucial responsibility for members of Congress, particularly when the majority of the public and many foreign policy and military experts believe the war is going badly.

“It’s an absolute sacred duty to ask those questions,” said Walz, the first-term lawmaker and retired National Guard soldier.

Unlike Walz, Coleman voted against the legislation. But Coleman said that shouldn’t be interpreted as blind support for Bush or for the war.

“I’m not for an open-ended commitment. I’m not for a blank check,” Coleman said. “... We’re going to have to have a Plan B.”

Coleman visited Iraq last weekend and said there is some indication that a surge in U.S. troops ordered by Bush is helping in some regions of the war-torn country. And the surge deserves to be fully implemented before judgments are made about whether it can be successful.

Coleman, who faces reelection next year, also said that Americans need to think about the outcome if the Iraq war is lost. He envisions an emboldened al-Qaida that will be able to spread its anti-American movement to other parts of the Islamic world.

“Part of our responsibility is to talk about the consequences,” he said.

Walz said the Iraq war isn’t about defeating al-Qaida — its a sectarian civil war that’s distracting America from the battle against al-Qaida. The legislation passed by Congress would provide U.S. generals leverage with Iraqi leaders as they attempt to force Iraqis to take more responsibility for ending the violence between different religious sects.

“This gives our generals in the field the ability to tell the Iraqis this is not an open-ended commitment,” Walz said.

Walz said he is pessimistic Bush will ever admit the war has become a quagmire and will never voluntarily agree to any accountability benchmarks from Congress.

“The president just refuses to face the reality,” said Walz, who believes Congress has a constitutional duty to continue pressuring the president to reconsider his strategy. “... The beauty of the country is that there’s three branches.”

In an interview on PBS earlier this week, Bush was asked if he has a plan B if the troop surge doesn’t work.

“The Plan B is to make Plan A work,” Bush said.