White House Stands By Beleaguered Rumsfeld

Despite continued criticism of his handling of the war in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld won strong backing Sunday from the White House and key Republicans in Congress.

Responding to demands last week by some conservatives for Rumsfeld’s resignation, White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. said that President Bush fully supported his Defense secretary.

“Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a spectacular job, and the president has great confidence in him,” Card said on ABC’s “This Week.” “He’s also transforming the military. And any time you do that, there are controversies.”

The White House show of support came as new criticism arose over reports that Rumsfeld had relied upon an automated signature machine to sign letters to the families of soldiers killed in combat. More than 1,300 members of the military have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003.

On Friday, in a response to the armed services newspaper Stars and Stripes, Rumsfeld acknowledged that he had used the machine as a way to speed up his responses to the families of the dead. But he said he would now personally sign all such correspondence.

“I have directed that in the future I sign each letter,” Rumsfeld declared in a formal statement carried in the newspaper’s Friday editions.

Although Republican leaders Sunday were sharply critical of what Rumsfeld had done, few joined the call for him to step down.

“This is another area in which the secretary has been insensitive,” Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I don’t think it goes to his leadership, but it does show a little insensitivity on his part that certainly needs to be corrected.”

Even some Democrats on the Sunday talk shows appeared reluctant to add to calls for Rumsfeld’s departure. Rumsfeld has weathered several campaigns seeking his resignation, including one after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

“I’m tired of talking about Rumsfeld,” Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The only thing that bothers me about it is this arrogance of not acknowledging obvious mistakes.”

The latest round of criticism erupted almost two weeks ago, after Rumsfeld, meeting with soldiers in Kuwait, told one concerned about the lack of armor for vehicles in Iraq that “you go to war with the army you have ... not the army you might want.”

That brusque response became a rallying cry for conservative critics of Rumsfeld’s strategy in Iraq. They have accused Rumsfeld of failing to plan for the lengthy occupation, of shortchanging the number of soldiers needed to quell the Iraqi insurgency, and of bungling the country’s rebuilding.

Rumsfeld’s comment prompted Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to announce that he had “no confidence” in the Defense secretary. That was followed by criticism from Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who said Rumsfeld did not “listen enough to his uniformed officials,” and a stinging editorial in the Weekly Standard by William Kristol, a prominent figure in the neoconservative movement that advocated for the war in Iraq, calling for the secretary’s replacement.

But Sunday, GOP leaders rallied behind the besieged Rumsfeld. They acknowledged that he had made mistakes, but downplayed suggestions that there was an immediate need for new leadership.

Even Kristol seemed to backtrack, saying on “Fox News Sunday” that Rumsfeld should remain at least through the Iraqi elections in January.

He was joined in that belief by Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We should not at this point in time entertain any idea of changing those responsibilities at the Pentagon,” Warner said on “Meet the Press.” “We’re going to go through this election. We’re going to have a tough period after the election.”

Appearing on the same program, Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that “we really cannot go through that ordeal” of confirming a new Defense secretary during wartime. Rumsfeld, he said, “should be held accountable, and he should stay in office.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Armed Services Committee, also suggested that Rumsfeld’s resignation would harm the war effort.

“This would be handing a gift to the jihadists and the insurgents and those who want to see us defeated in Iraq for Donald Rumsfeld to resign now,” Cornyn said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Nevertheless, some Republicans and Democrats continued to express doubts over Rumsfeld’s leadership.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, a moderate Republican from Nebraska, said Sunday that he also had no confidence in Rumsfeld’s leadership, suggesting that his removal would ensure accountability for the failures in Iraq.

“Things are worse than they’ve ever been,” Hagel said on “Face the Nation.” “No one over there has been held accountable for the poor planning.”