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At stake really are politics and psychological momentum. In a period when he is besieged by protest, the President cannot afford an official Senate rebuke, even if the House modified it enough to make it meaningless in material terms. Also, Cooper-Church and McGovern-Hatfield serve as rallying points for the moderate majority of the protest movement. In the upcoming fall congressional elections, the way legislators voted on the amendments will also represent tests by which candidates may be judged on the war issue. From the Administration's viewpoint, then, it would have been far better to keep the amendments in perspective by arguing their merits, rather than inflate them into cosmic questions of power.