Last year, when a chorus of anti-war congressmen in the House of Representatives - led by Democratic Rep. John Murtha - began calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert ended the debate thusly: He had the issue put to a vote on the House floor, where withdrawal was defeated overwhelmingly.

For New Yorkers, closer to home there's an issue that could prove thorny in the statehouse. State Sen. Minority Leader David Paterson is proposing legislation that would charge cops with manslaughter if they used deadly physical force to protect themselves in many situations.

Paterson is running for lieutenant governor on the ticket led by Democratic Attorney General Eliot Spitzer - who says he opposes Paterson's proposal. It's created a thorny issue for Spitzer with some nasty blowback.

How could Republicans maximize their position? State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno could put it to an immediate vote on the floor of the Senate. He could make Paterson stand up in the chamber and, on camera, defend a bill that Republican gubernatorial candidate William Weld has called "a prescription for dead cops."

Among other things, the bill says would call for second-degree manslaughter charges against a cop when:

He or she is a police officer or peace officer who kills a person by use of a loaded weapon, for a purpose otherwise justified by law, with the intent to kill, rather than stop, such person, and beyond the minimal amount of force necessary to stop the person.

There's no real chance the bill would ever pass in an up-down vote and, in the event it did, Republican Gov. Pataki would almost certainly veto it. But it would put Democrats and Spitzer's camp in the untenable position of continuing to back Paterson's candidacy. And it would keep an unwanted limelight on an issue Spitzer would rather have go away.