It may be time to “redefine the goals” for Iraq, the admiral whom President Bush picked to lead U.S. forces in the Middle East told Congress on Tuesday as lawmakers of both parties maneuvered for leverage against Bush’s proposed troop buildup.

Navy Adm. William Fallon, Bush’s nominee to head the U.S. Central Command, said at his Senate confirmation hearing that time for finding solutions in Iraq is running out.

“What we have been doing has not been working,” he said. “We have got to be doing, it seems to me, something different.” He did not say what might change under his command.

“I believe the situation in Iraq can be turned around, but time is short,” Fallon told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, just returned from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, told reporters on Capitol Hill that her delegation saw no sign that U.S. efforts in Iraq are moving ahead with urgency.

“We went with the hope and expectation that what we would see in Iraq was some coordinated effort to have political solutions, to relieve the civil strife and violence there, and diplomatic efforts to bring stability to the region,” she said. “We saw no evidence of either, sadly.”

She praised the U.S. military’s efforts but said more must be done on the economic and political fronts.

Rejecting Bush’s troop buildup, Pelosi called for refocusing the U.S. military mission from combat to a combination of training Iraqi forces, protecting Iraq’s borders and fighting terrorists.

Bush’s declaration last week that “I am the decision maker” on issues of war also ran into resistance, this time from a prominent Republican. Bush has said he intends to push ahead with his plan to send an additional 21,500 U.S. troops to Iraq, regardless of any resolution the Senate may pass.

“I would suggest respectfully to the president that he is not the sole decider,” Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said during a hearing on Congress’ war powers. “The decider is a shared and joint responsibility.”

There were about 132,000 U.S. troops in Iraq before the increase.

How to try to force an end to the war in Iraq, and under what conditions, is among the issues faced by the newly empowered Democratic majority in Congress and some of the president’s political allies as well.

Meanwhile, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid informed Bush on Tuesday that they support his idea for a bipartisan group to advise him on the war on terrorism. Bush pitched the idea as a way to strengthen his relationship with Congress and gather regular input from lawmakers.

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