The Associated Press

Sat, May 17, 2008 (12:27 a.m.)

An anti-war Democratic congressman backed off complaints about Defense Department personnel watching a House vote after the Pentagon told him they were students from the Army War College.

Northern California Rep. Pete Stark wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday demanding to know what the uniformed personnel were doing in a public gallery Thursday as the House debated and voted on an Iraq war spending bill. Stark claimed he saw some 20 Army generals or other officers there for a couple of hours.

"If they were here on official duty, this was an abhorrent misallocation of our military resources at a time of war," said the letter from Stark, an 18-term incumbent known for his liberal positions and outbursts of temper.

Stark's office released that letter around noon Friday. About four-and-a-half hours later came a shorter release in which Stark said he'd been informed that the onlookers weren't generals, but a class from the war college in Carlisle, Pa.

"I appreciate the swift response," Stark said in his follow-up statement, without retracting or apologizing for his earlier complaints. "However, if these officers were hoping for a lesson in how Congress ought to work, then perhaps the Iraq supplemental wasn't the best debate for them to witness."

In the course of the somewhat chaotic House action Thursday, the war spending bill fell to defeat after Republicans withheld their votes to punish Democratic tactics _ probably as good as an example as any of how the House operates.