The message reverberated in the latest election results, and grew louder in the subsequent series of opinion polls: The overwhelming majority of Americans, nearly 70 percent, believe things are going poorly in Iraq and that it's time for a policy shift.

Democrats rode that wave of discontent into the majority spot in Congress. And President Bush is paying the political price for his strident stand on the Iraq war with an excruciatingly low approval rating hovering in the 28 percent range.

Now, a clear line has been drawn in the sand.

The U.S. Senate yesterday joined their counterparts in the House in passing a $124 billion war spending bill that would require the Bush administration to begin withdrawing from Iraq by Oct. 1 and to abide by new benchmarks to gauge progress of the Iraqi government.

The vote was largely partisan: 218-208 in the House; 51-46 in the Senate.

Whether you believe the bill is necessary to force Iraqis to take the reins of responsibility or feel that a timetable of any kind is a disaster in the making, the political showdown will illustrate just how much the will of taxpayers — and their votes — matters.

Bush has already said he would veto the bill. That's no surprise. In fact, the White House, in a statement of somewhat smug defiance, views the outcome as a "foregone conclusion" and "anticlimactic," citing the apparent lack of the two-thirds majority needed for an override.

But, in truth, it's much more.

The override vote again forces lawmakers to weigh the strain of party politics against the growing chorus of public opposition to the war.

It's a choice that must not be made lightly. And it's a choice voters are sure to remember.