The first I remember hearing about James Baker's Iraq Study Group during the 2006 elections was when Congressman Dave Reichert said he was awaiting its report as he looked for a new Iraq strategy. In October, his campaign issued a statement in response to a question about whether he still supported the President's Iraq strategy:

Congressman Reichert has been vocal in his support of a new approach in Iraq that takes into account the changing enemy in the region. He supports Congressman Frank Wolf's initiative, the Iraq Study Group that formed through the Institute of Peace. This bipartisan group led by former Secretary of State James Baker and former 9/11 Commissioner Lee Hamilton (D-IN) is looking on behalf of Congress at new strategies for victory in Iraq.

The report has been out for a month, and Reichert said he has read the executive summary. He was not impressed. He told me this week he didn't see anything new in the report:

"I believe a lot of it was common sense. ... I'm sure these things have been thought of before, considered before."

He wishes there had been an earlier and stronger push for international support for the occupation, but Reichert said he hasn't seen anything that shakes his confidence in the Pentagon's leadership.

"I always go back to what I said when I first ran: The decision about the number of troops, how they are deployed, where they are deployed, the technology that they need, is up to the generals."

Sen. Maria Cantwell said she supports what's outlined in yesterday's letter to Bush from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Though it's expected Bush will soon call for more troops in Iraq, Cantwell said she's unsure what the strategy will be.

"There are lots of changes in the administration right now. It's hard to tell what the heck they're doing."

I talked to Sen. Patty Murray about Iraq before the letter was released. Last month she was one of 14 lawmakers who met with Bush to talk about the Iraq Study Group report. She told the president that Americans are uneasy about the war and he now had a chance to find a new strategy.

Murray said that she hopes when Bush gives a speech about Iraq next week that he spends half of it explaining to Americans what they need to sacrifice for the war.

"Let's not just put the burden on those soldiers. We have not been asked to pay for this. ... I see it every day, people driving their BMWs to work, filling up the tanks, while our soldiers come back with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) The president has not defined for this country what the sacrifice is."

Murray said she didn't have a specific proposal for how to pay for it or how to make the sacrifice clear. When I asked if a special tax to fund the war would do that, Murray said, "It would make this debate more real."

The other day I wrote about Congressman Adam Smith's statement that he is close to deciding that the best thing for the U.S. to do is to get out of Iraq. I also wrote about his comment that voters are uneasy about Democrats' national security credentials.

But that shouldn't be read as Smith trying to balance between calling for a withdrawal and concerns about the party's reputation. I get the sense he is very close to supporting a withdrawal. He said that while he hates historic military metaphors, he had one himself for Iraq and what he says is a global war on terror: The U.S. left Vietnam, lost Vietnam to the Communists, but eventually won the Cold War.

ALSO: With all the talk of Bush about to call for an Iraq "surge," look for Democrats to try to change the terms in coming days. They say it's an "escalation," and that's what it should be called.

Congressman Jim McDermott made that point to me the other day. And I see in this morning's Washington Post:

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said the party wants to address even the terminology of the White House plan, defining it not as a "surge" but as an "escalation." "People are going to know [the president] has a very critical audience in the Democratic Congress on this proposal," he said.