But, she added, “You know we can’t without a presidential signature.”

That is a difference in tone from the defiant stand she took when campaigning for Congress and when she took over as speaker. 

However, the statement is part of Pelosi’s campaign to educate voters on the complex political obstacles Democrats face on the Iraq issue and reduce the expectations that she says have left those voters disappointed with Congress.

But Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson challenged Pelosi’s assertion just a little later Sunday.

He told ABC News’s “This Week” that Congress could “de-authorize” the war without Bush’s signature, using a resolution already introduced by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.).

“I believe a national movement could be built to support that,” Richardson said. “The president cannot veto that because it would be under Article I of the Constitution. That is the decisive step that the American people want. There is a disconnect between the voters and what’s happening in the Congress.”

Richardson has criticized his fellow presidential candidates for their unwillingness to commit to withdrawing troops by the end of the next presidential term.

In her Fox News Sunday interview, Pelosi also said she prays for Bush “all the time.”

“And I pray especially hard that he would sign the children’s health bill because it’s so important for America’s children.”

But she added that while growing up in politics, she learned not to pray “for a political outcome.”

“We just pray that God’s will will be done. We pray for the children, we pray for poor people, we pray for people who need help,” she said. “And we always, always, always pray for our men and women in uniform who make our freedom to pray possible.”