(Adds White House reaction in fourth paragraph)

By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Democrats who lead Congress likened President George W. Bush on Thursday to a bully on Iraq war policy and vowed to spend no more on combat without a deadline for bringing U.S. troops home.

"He damn sure is not entitled to having this money given to him just with a blank check," Sen. Harry Reid, the Democrats' Senate leader, told reporters. "Americans need someone fighting for them taking on this bully we have in the White House."

Reid's tough tone came toward the end of a year in which Democrats, despite slim majorities in both houses, have failed repeatedly to garner the votes to change Bush's open-ended military commitment to the Iraq war.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in response to Reid: "The president does not engage in personal attacks. He's interested in getting things done on behalf of the American people, and he's looking for a willing partner in Congress."

Reid and other Democrats accused Bush of wanting a free-flow of hundreds of billions of dollars for the Iraq war, all the while being tight-fisted on the home front.

"Every dollar we spend in Iraq comes at the expense of people in America," Reid said. Later he said that with the $470 billion already in the Defense Department budget, Bush "should be able to do okay on that for a few months."

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned that without congressional approval of the additional money, he would order plans be made to lay off civilian employees, terminate contracts and reduce operations at bases.

"There is a misperception that this department can continue funding our troops in the field for an indefinite period of time through accounting maneuvers, that we can shuffle money around the department," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon. "This is a serious misconception."

HOUSE VOTE

The House of Representatives approved on Wednesday a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq in 13 months, defying the Republican Bush by tying the measure to $50 billion in new war funds. The money would be only about a quarter of what Bush has requested. The vote was 218-203.

Senate Democrats said they would hold a vote very soon on the same measure.

Under the Democrats' plan, there would be a non-binding goal to get all American combat soldiers out of Iraq by Dec. 15, 2008. The measure faces an uphill fight in the Senate where Republicans have vowed to block it, and the White House has said it will be vetoed.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday brushed off a reporter's question about possible compromise language that would steer the U.S. mission in Iraq away from combat, but do so without troop withdrawal deadlines.

"We have put forth our new policy. We will press for that, and that is the approach that we will take," Pelosi said.

But Mitch McConnell, the leading Republican in the Senate, said: "We've had fights over troop funding bills before, and in the end, the money's been there for the troops. That will be the case again," he told reporters.

Republicans said they would try to pass an alternative measure giving the Pentagon $70 billion without any strings attached.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey told a Senate committee the war had greatly strained soldiers, families and equipment because of lengthy and repeated deployments.

"The current demand of our forces exceeds the sustainable supply. We are consumed with meeting the demands of the current fight and are unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as necessary for other potential contingencies," he said. (Additional reporting by Kristin Roberts and Tabassum Zakaria, editing by Howard Goller)

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