GOP still swinging, but still on defensive

Republicans battling to keep control of the House and Senate kept up attacks on Democrats across the country Saturday as the president and other GOP leaders kicked off the final weekend of the campaign with dire warnings about higher taxes and defeat in Iraq if Democrats take control of Congress.

But even as President Bush claimed credit for Friday’s report of declining unemployment, the administration had to contend with renewed calls for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, this time from the influential civilian-owned Military Times newsweeklies.

And the party’s “values” message -- highlighted again Saturday by Bush at a rally for Rep. Marilyn N. Musgrave (R-Colo.) -- competed for headlines with news that an influential Colorado evangelical leader was fired from his mega-church over “sexually immoral conduct” with a male prostitute.

Bush is in the midst of crisscrossing the country rallying Republicans; he still plans to visit Kansas, Nebraska, Florida, Arkansas and Texas before polls close Tuesday.

He delivered his weekly radio address Saturday from the Mile High Coffee Shop in Englewood, Colo., where he tried to link his party to the success of small businesses.

“The last thing American families and small businesses need now is a higher tax bill, and that is what you’ll get if the Democrats take control of the Congress,” the president said.

Democrats continued to try to keep the focus on trouble in Iraq, even on the eve of an expected guilty verdict in the trial of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

“George Bush and his Republican Congress don’t get it, but the military papers do,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said, referring to an editorial in the issue of Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times to go on newsstands Monday. The publications previously criticized Rumsfeld over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

Last week, Bush said that Rumsfeld was doing a “fantastic” job and that he wanted him to stay on the job for the rest of his term. The Military Times editorial said the Defense secretary “has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large. His strategy has failed, and his ability to lead is compromised.”

The Democratic response to Bush’s radio address was delivered by Pennsylvania congressional candidate Lois Murphy, who promised that Democrats would “fight for a new direction in Iraq to change the president’s failed course so that our troops can finally come home.” Murphy is challenging Republican Rep. Jim Gerlach in a suburban Philadelphia district.

Democrats need to pick up 15 House seats and six Senate seats for a majority in each chamber.

Some Republican candidates were showing increased strength, but polls nationwide indicate a growing likelihood that Democrats will win the House. The nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report estimated last week that Democrats would pick up 34 to 40 seats, versus a week-earlier projection of 18 to 28 seats, “with slightly larger gains not impossible.”

The battle for control of the Senate remains extremely close. And as the two parties sparred nationally over the war and the economy Saturday, more local battles continued to rage in states considered pivotal to the Senate balance of power.

In Montana, farmer and state lawmaker Jon Tester for months held a large lead over three-term Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, who was tarnished by his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

But Burns has been airing tough ads accusing Tester of raising taxes. And in the last week, the race has tightened considerably.

Tester, like many Democratic senatorial candidates this year, has closed his campaign with a gauzy TV ad that focuses almost exclusively on the candidate rather than his opponent.

In Virginia, Republican Sen. George Allen, who has been locked in a close race with former Navy Secretary Jim Webb, continued to pummel his opponent with accusations that Webb had not treated allegations of sexual harassment seriously in the Navy and had included passages in his novels that were demeaning to women.

Webb has fiercely denied the charges. And Saturday, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright joined other women for the final event in a Women Choose Webb tour.

Former President Clinton plans to campaign for Webb on Monday.

noam.levey@latimes.com

Times staff writer Molly Hennessy-Fiske contributed to this report.