Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack yesterday criticized Senate Republicans for frustrating a resolution critical of the administration's Iraq policy, but at the same time he dismissed the nonbinding measure as an abdication of Congress' responsibility for oversight of the war.

Mr. Vilsack, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, spoke the day after Senate Republicans had blocked the resolution, supported by lawmakers of both parties, that would have expressed disagreement with the president's decision to increase troop levels in an effort to curb violence in Baghdad and elsewhere. The two-term governor, who chose not to run for a third term, spoke during a stop in Pittsburgh, where he was raising money for his presidential bid.

Republican leaders stymied the Democratic majority's plan to spotlight the resolution against the war as they tied its consideration to two other proposals, one of which would have called for a statement of opposition to any effort to block funding for troops in the field.

"I think Congress has a constitutional and moral responsibility to vote on this, so that people know where everyone stands," Mr. Vilsack said. "The notion that you would use procedural matters to block debate and a vote on something that involves the life and death of young soldiers is troublesome."

Still, Mr. Vilsack, a Pittsburgh native, argued that the anti-war resolution itself was a woefully inadequate response to what he characterized as a failed policy. "A nonbinding resolution -- what is that?" he said contemptuously. "What is that, when we're talking about life and death? I fault the president for his policy. I fault the Congress for its inaction."

The Democrat repeated his contention that Congress should use the power of the purse to force the Bush administration to pull U.S. troops out of the combat operations in Iraq.

"Congress should say, basically, 'Mr. President, we're not going to fund this war,' " Mr. Vilsack said. "Congress is a co-equal partner. They're not acting like a co-equal partner. They're essentially ceding their responsibility to the executive branch."

Mr. Vilsack reiterated his anti-war stance as he and a handful of rivals maneuver for the support of Democratic voters, who, according to polls nationally and in the early primary and caucus states, are strongly opposed to the Iraq conflict. Asked to comment on President Bush's budget proposal, he again turned the conversation back to Iraq.

"Part of the problem with the president's budget is that a priority is funding the war," he said. "As long as that's a priority, it's going to be much more difficult to fund education or health care, or attempt to control the deficit."

Earlier in the morning, he had made a brief stop in the Hill District at the former site of the orphanage where he was born. Mr. Vilsack, adopted and raised by a Squirrel Hill family, has never tried to find his birth mother. Since he announced his presidential candidacy, however, a nun affiliated with the orphanage notified him of records that could help him identify the woman. Mr. Vilsack said he was still weighing his response to the possibility.

"I'm thinking about all this, and trying to make sure I respect and honor the privacy of a woman that may very well be alive," he said. "At the same time, your curiosity gets piqued when you see where you were born, and recognize you started life as an outsider, and you are running for president as an outsider."

Polls suggest that Mr. Vilsack is a distinct underdog in a large Democrat field dominated by the better-known candidacies of Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barak Obama of Illinois and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, but he insisted that he likes his chances.

"We're going through what I refer to as the 'American Idol' stage of the campaign," he said, arguing that forums and debates over the next year would raise his national profile, and that his organization in the early battlegrounds -- particularly his home state of Iowa -- would provide a springboard to contention in the big states clustered on the calendar after the Iowa and New Hampshire contests.

"I'm going to be one of the two or three left standing," he predicted.