"The Republican leadership can filibuster us like they did last week, but sooner or later there are going to be votes in the Senate," Senator Carl Levin says of the Democrats mission in the coming months.

He believes Democrats were elected in November to bring troops home from Iraq. He'd like it to begin within a four-month timetable, and he'd like Congress to re-write the resolution that authorized the war in 2002 to limit the president to waging it under new terms.

"We'll leave a limited force for limited purposes to support the Iraqi army, a training mission," Levin says.

Cutting funding, he says, sends the wrong message to the troops.

"We're not gonna make the Vietnam mistake again. We're not going to take out our differences with the policies of a president on the men and women who serve us."

He also spoke about recent cuts at Daimler-Chrysler. He says he can't predict if there will be 3 American automakers, but he feels it's important that Americans make cars in the United States.

His concern for American manufacturing runs parallel with his concern over a general disapproval of congress. Both, he says, require action on the hill.

"]We have to produce a good legislative product," he says. "If people see results, they'll ignore politics and conflict."

On the race for the Democratic nod for Congress, Levin says, "Whatever Democrat's gonna be the strongest is the one I'm for."

Levin will run for re-election to the Senate in 2008.