Here's an interesting backstage development in Congress' Iraq debate.

In another sign that House liberals are refusing to allow House GOPers to vote on toothless Iraq measures that would merely give them political cover, House liberals are pressuring the Dem leadership this week to kill another Iraq amendment that they view as far too weak because it wouldn't force withdrawal.

The latest target of the libs is an amendment sponsored by Dem Reps. Neil Abercrombie and John Tanner that would require the President to reveal the "status" of any withdrawal planning but contains no withdrawal timetable. Liberals earlier this week killed another measure by Rep. John Murtha because it lacked a "date certain" for withdrawal.

According to Hill sources, the Dem leadership called a private meeting yesterday, bringing together the bill's proponents and its liberal opponents, mostly members of the House progressive caucus. More after the jump.

In the meeting -- which was also written about in the smaller Congress publications -- both sides made their case. Libs insisted that such a bill would give Republican House members cover by allowing them to go home to constitutents over recess and say they voted against the President.

"It would let them go home and say, `Look, I took a vote against Iraq,'" a staffer says.

The libs appear to have won the day -- for now. Leadership had privately let lawmakers know that they should expect a vote on the bill today, a source says -- but now it's not on today's schedule. I've asked leadership for comment -- nothing yet.

The bill's ultimate fate is unknown. But all in all, this latest development is yet another sign that House liberals are standing firm and refusing to give any oxygen to any GOP efforts to say they're going against the President without voting for anything that would actually force a change in his policies.