Members hail Rumsfeld’s exit

At least some Republicans in Congress were breathing a sigh of relief after President Bush accepted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation yesterday in the aftermath of the strong Democratic midterm election showing, removing a combative figure with whom many on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill have tangled over the years.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the current vice chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said last year that he had lost faith in Rumsfeld’s ability to lead the war efforts. Yesterday he said Rumsfeld’s resignation gives Congress a fresh opportunity to fix mistakes made in the Iraq war.

“There’s a long list of misjudgments and errors that have been made that have cost us enormously in American blood,” McCain told reporters at a news conference in Phoenix.

“The resounding message of yesterday’s election was change, and change in the leadership at the Department of Defense is a good thing,” said Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) in a statement. “In fact, I believe this change should have occurred before the election.”

President Bush yesterday tapped Robert Gates, a former head of the CIA and now president of Texas A&M University, for the job.

Gates is also a member of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, tasked with charting a new direction in that nation. Former Secretary of State James Baker chairs the group.

If confirmed, some defense-industry insiders have speculated that Gates may choose to replace those officials whom Rumsfeld hand-picked, such as Stephen Cambone, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, and Ryan Henry, the principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy.

Several top Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), said Wednesday that they hope a change in leadership signified an altered war policy.  

President Bush’s announcement of the Pentagon shake-up came just hours after House Speaker-elect Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called for a change in leadership at the Defense Department.

With control of the Senate hinging on the outcome of the Virginia Senate recount, Jim Webb, the Democratic candidate in that race and a Vietnam War veteran and former secretary of the Navy, argued that Gates’s confirmation should not occur until after the new Congress convenes in January.

“I am pleased that we will have a new secretary of defense, but I believe that the new Senate should be the body that examines Bob Gates’s qualifications for confirmation,” he said.

Democrats have accused Rumsfeld, the controversial face of the war in Iraq, of ignoring the warnings of some generals that imposing a peace in Iraq would be harder and bloodier than just toppling Saddam Hussein.

Democrats, retired military officers and several Republicans have called for Rumsfeld’s resignation for months.

Bush asked Rumsfeld to stay on after his 2004 reelection as a sign of faith for one of the key architects of the war. The President did not heed the calls for Rumsfeld’s resignation until House Republicans lost their grip on the majority yesterday.

Bush’s party has lost at least the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate, after a midterm election campaign dominated by bad headlines about the war in Iraq.

Sharing the public’s increasing frustration with the war, Bush said that the timing is right for a changing of the guard at the Pentagon.

“After a series of thoughtful conversations, Secretary Rumsfeld and I agreed that the timing is right for new leadership at the Pentagon,” Bush told reporters at a White House press conference.

“Donald Rumsfeld has been a superb leader during a time of change, yet he also appreciates the value of bringing in a fresh perspective during a critical period of this war.”

Bush insisted that Rumsfeld’s replacement has been in the works for a couple of weeks. “Win or lose, Bob Gates was going to become the nominee,” Bush said.

Bush added that he did not want to announce such a major decision in the last few days of the midterm election campaigns.

Gates worked his way up from an entry-level position at the CIA to become agency’s director, a title he held from 1991 to 1993. But his nomination to agency director back then was rocky, fraught with questions that he used his CIA post to ensure that the agency’s reporting conformed to certain key policies of the Reagan White House. 

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and potentially the next chairman of the committee, voted against Gates. But Levin said he is willing to give him a fresh look — to have an opportunity to ask him questions and hold public confirmation hearings. 

Levin said he discussed the idea to start the confirmation process during the lame-duck session of Congress with current Armed Services Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) yesterday.

There may not be time, however, to confirm Gates before next year.

Bush said that Rumsfeld has agreed to stay on until Gates is confirmed to make sure that the Pentagon isn’t without a top leader at a time of war.  Making his resignation announcement with Bush and Gates, Rumsfeld paraphrased Winston Churchill: “I have benefited greatly from criticism.”

Gates said that he did not expect to come back to public service but that he did not “hesitate” when the president asked him “to return to duty.”

As dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq dominated the midterm elections, several Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Vietnam veterans have shot to fame as they sought public office.

And even though war veterans did not win most of the seats they campaigned for, several insiders have said that they opened the door for other veterans to run in the future.

“People are making it clear that they want the voice of the troops represented — they trust the people who fought the war,” said a spokesman for VoteVets.org.

Veterans won five seats in Tuesday’s titanic election, which was widely regarded as a referendum on the war in Iraq. But Tammy Duckworth, an Army pilot who lost both legs in Iraq and has said the war there was a mistake, narrowly lost to her Republican challenger in one of the country’s most conservative districts. 

Joe Sestak may be the veteran considered the most significant victor. The retired Navy vice admiral defeated Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), the vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Sestak, who commanded a carrier battle group during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, is one of the highest-ranking officers to run for Congress.

Democrat Chris Carney defeated scandal-plagued Rep. Don Sherwood (R-Pa.). Carney is a Navy Reserves lieutenant commander who served at the Pentagon as a senior adviser on intelligence and counterterrorism.

Tim Walz, who retired from the Army National Guard after he worked in support of Afghanistan operations, beat six-term incumbent Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.).

But 14 others were not as lucky, though all ran competitive races.

Cameron Joseph and Madeleine Scinto contributed to this report.