Candidates of Both Parties Turn Criticism of Rumsfeld Into Political Chorus
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 — Democrats and at least some Republicans appear to agree on one thing as the election approaches: Attacking Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is a way to lift them to victory.
For Democrats, the calculation is clear. They have begun a concerted effort, including pressing for a no-confidence vote on Mr. Rumsfeld in Congress this week, to portray him as the embodiment of what has gone wrong in Iraq.
For a small but growing number of Republicans, attacking Mr. Rumsfeld is a way to criticize how the war has been conducted without turning against the war itself.
“If I had my way, he wouldn’t be secretary of defense now,” Mike McGavick, the Republican challenger to Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington, said in an interview Tuesday. “I would have accepted his resignation after Abu Ghraib. I have lost confidence in him.”
Politically at least, it may not be in the interest of any of Mr. Rumsfeld’s critics for the defense secretary to vacate his post before Election Day. But with the White House insisting again on Tuesday that the president would not abandon his secretary of defense, it seems clear that Mr. Rumsfeld is destined to be as big a player in this fall campaign as many of the members of Congress who are actually on the ballot.
“Both hawks and doves can call for Rumsfeld to step down and still be consistent with their position,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “It applies to both parties.”
“It’s really a free shot for Republicans,” said Rich Galen, a Republican consultant who worked as a civilian employee for the Defense Department in Iraq. “You can be in favor of what we are trying to accomplish in Iraq and not be in favor of Rumsfeld.”
Democratic strategists said the party had long planned to use Mr. Rumsfeld in the campaign as a symbol of a war gone wrong, including incorporating him into advertising and having candidates call on him to resign. But they said the effort gathered force after he gave a speech last week in which he appeared to compare Iraq war critics to Nazi appeasers before World War II.
“It’s a great issue,” said Howard Wolfson, a Democratic consultant who is advising Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as well as Democrats in two upstate New York districts whose advertisements have included challenges to the war in Iraq. “It forces the stay-the-course Republicans to chose between the president and their districts.”
Representative Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat who is leading his party’s effort to take back the House, said, “We are going to go after Rumsfeld.”
For Republicans, this is slightly more difficult because the White House made clear that President Bush supports Mr. Rumsfeld and that he is not going anywhere any time soon.
“The president strongly supports the defense secretary,” said Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, rebutting the Democratic call for Mr. Rumsfeld’s ouster. “It’s not going to happen. Creating Don Rumsfeld as a boogeyman may make for good politics but would make for very lousy strategy at this time.”
But to varying degrees and volume, Republicans have been critical of Mr. Rumsfeld — who had surgery on his left shoulder Tuesday to repair a torn rotator cuff — and strategists for both parties said that was a trend that was likely to increase over the next few weeks.
Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut, a Republican who is struggling to win re-election in the face of attacks on his support for the war, said Tuesday that he would support a vote against Mr. Rumsfeld in the House, should it come up.
“I don’t like the guy — I simply don’t think he has measured up on running the war in Iraq,” Mr. Shays said. “Would I vote for a no-confidence resolution on Secretary Rumsfeld? Yes.”
Representative Jo Ann Davis, Republican of Virginia, also criticized Mr. Rumsfeld in a speech in mid-August.
“It’s probably the only thing in my life I’ve ever agreed with Hillary Clinton about,” she said. “He’s probably a nice guy, but I don’t think he’s a great secretary of defense.”
Thomas H. Kean Jr., the Republican candidate for Senate in New Jersey, called for Mr. Rumsfeld to step aside. At a debate in Ohio, Senator Mike DeWine, a Republican struggling to win re-election, declared, “I have consistently said that Donald Rumsfeld has made mistakes running this war.”
Republicans in Congress said they were confident they could block a Democratic plan to force no-confidence votes on Mr. Rumsfeld and the administration’s national security policies on Wednesday. The legislative maneuvering is intended to force Republicans facing tough election battles to either break with the White House or join the wave of criticism for Mr. Rumsfeld and his management of the war.
A no-confidence vote in the Senate could be a problem for Republicans in tough races like those of Mr. DeWine, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Jim Talent of Missouri. Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, accused Democrats of playing a “pure political game.”
Some Republicans in tough races have stuck by the defense secretary. In a television debate on the NBC program “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Senator Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania, offered his full support for Mr. Rumsfeld, a statement that Senate Democrats instantly highlighted in e-mail messages sent to reporters.
Even if Mr. Frist succeeds in stopping a vote, Democrats clearly intend to make Mr. Rumsfeld a central star of their campaign. Democrats said his speech last week had the effect of firing up the campaign; Mr. Emanuel said moderate Democrats who may have had apprehensions about going after Mr. Rumsfeld lost their concern after reading his remarks.
From Connecticut to Colorado, Democratic candidates for the House have either criticized Mr. Rumsfeld or urged his removal. Democratic candidates for Senate in Rhode Island, Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arizona, among others, have assailed him.
“I’ve talked it over with most of our candidates, and the majority, if they haven’t already, will call on him to step down,” Senator Schumer said.
things up as royally as he has. For this, he should step down.
