A California Senate committee has approved an “advisory” measure on Pres. George Bush’s war in Iraq that will appear on the presidential primary ballot next February if the bill passes in both houses of the legislature and if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approves it.

The California Legislature is controlled by Democrats, so it is likely the bill will pass. Schwarzenegger is a liberal Republican who came out for withdrawing troops from Iraq a few days before he was reelected in a landslide last November:

“I think that we should get out of there as quickly as we can because, you know, we should have a deadline of when we pull the troops out and figure that out and work together with the government in Iraq. I think they are doing that now.”

Schwarzenegger was told the president has opposed setting a deadline, and Schwarzenegger didn’t let up. His response: “Well, I think that eventually he will have to put a deadline on there. I think the American people will demand it.”

Schwarzenegger claims to represent a “post-partisan” approach to politics — a stance most Democrats in the state view with suspicion and that most Republicans revile.

Since the ballot measure would go against the best interests of the liberal GOP presidential candidate Rudolph Giuiliani, it is possible Schwarzenegger could risk angering California Democrats and veto the measure to help Giuliani.