Earlier versions of this story incorrectly reported that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) is not up for reelection. She is running this fall. This version has been corrected.
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Rumsfeld Tells Iraq Critics to 'Back Off'
"We can't set a hard timetable, but we can ramp up pressure on the Iraqis to take responsibility," Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.) told the Danbury News-Times editorial board.
Such statements about an unpopular war may seem logical from candidates locked in perhaps the most difficult political campaigns of their lives. But in recent days, the sentiments have come from Republicans breezing toward reelection or not even in a race this year.
  Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, right, escorts Spain's Defense Minister Jose Antonio Alonso Suarez, during an honor cordon at the Pentagon on Monday. (Lawrence Jackson - AP) Special Report
Washington Post coverage of the U.S. military and its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. |
Hutchison, a White House stalwart who is up for reelection, broke from Republican talking points, saying: "If I knew then what I had known now, on the weapons of mass destruction, which was a key reason I voted the way I did, I would not have voted to go into Iraq."
Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), who is leading her Democratic opponent in the most recent poll, 73 percent to 10 percent, declared: "Staying the course is neither an option nor a plan. Congress must be willing to reassess and re-chart our future military presence in Iraq."
Republicans had once hoped to frame Iraq as a vital front in the fight against terrorism and to pound Democratic critics for being weak on national security. But with just days left to campaign, Democrats are turning the war against Republicans in dozens of closely contested races around the country.
The calls for Rumsfeld's resignation and the criticism of the conduct of the war by Northup, DeWine and others are "a reflection of just how difficult it has been for Republican candidates to separate themselves from the president and the war," said Amy Walter, a House analyst with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
"With 12 days left, they've attacked the Democrats. It didn't work. They've talked about their greatest strengths: taxes, terrorism and immigration. It didn't work. Now they're saying, 'Well, we'll try this.' "
"They have to respond to their constituents," said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster and campaign strategist.
"In the end, voters need to know they understand the public's frustration and concern," he said. "Does it undermine the support for the war? Yes. But does it help these Republican campaigns? Also yes."
