WASHINGTON — The Senate blocked legislation yesterday that would have cut off money for combat in Iraq by June — a predictable defeat for Democrats struggling to pass less divisive anti-war measures.

The 28-70 vote was 32 short of the 60 needed to cut off a GOP filibuster. The legislation, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Russ Feingold, was indicative of the Democratic leadership's new hard-line strategy.

Hawai'i Sens. Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye, both Democrats, voted for the measure.

Twenty Democrats joined 49 Republicans and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, in voting to block the bill.

Democrats now have united behind a proposal that would order an end to combat within nine months. But that measure, by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., also was expected to fail because Republicans said they opposed setting a timetable.

"They want this war more than they want to protect our soldiers," Reid, D-Nev., said. "When I say they want the war, they want to protect their president more than they want to protect our troops."

Earlier, the Senate voted 72-25 to condemn an advertisement by the liberal anti-war group www.MoveOn.org that accused the top U.S. military commander in Iraq of betrayal.

A full-page ad appeared last week in the New York Times as Army Gen. David Petraeus testified before Congress about his assessment of the situation in Iraq.

The ad's headline was: "General Petraeus or General Betray Us? Cooking the books for the White House."

Sen. Gordon Smith, one of the few Republican senators who supports legislation ordering troop withdrawals, said he thought Petraeus' testimony and the ad were the two biggest factors in keeping Republicans from breaking ranks with the president.

He said Petraeus' testimony was persuasive and the ad went too far by attacking a popular uniformed officer.

Akaka and Inouye voted against the resolution, sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

President Bush said the www.MoveOn.org advertisement was "disgusting" and he criticized Democrats for not immediately condemning it.

"And that leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like www.MoveOn.org, or more afraid of irritating them, than they are of irritating the United States military," Bush said at a news conference.

Eli Pariser, executive director of the liberal group, responded: "What's disgusting is that the president has more interest in political attacks than developing an exit strategy to get our troops out of Iraq and end this awful war."