Posted on 08/04/2006 11:29:31 AM PDT by yoe
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton called Thursday for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, hours after excoriating him at a public hearing over what she said was a “failed policy” in Iraq.
“I just don't understand why we can't get new leadership that would give us a fighting chance to turn the situation around before it's too late,” the New York Democrat told the Associated Press.
“I think the president should choose to accept Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation.”
Clinton confronted Rumsfeld directly on Iraq and Afghanistan earlier in the day, and said his answers left her convinced he should go.
“The secretary has lost credibility with the Congress and with the people. It's time for him to step down and be replaced by someone who can develop an effective strategy and communicate it effectively to the American people and to the world.”
For months, Clinton has resisted joining the chorus of other Democrats demanding Rumsfeld's ouster. Her remarks Thursday were the harshest assessment yet from the woman considered her party's early front-runner for the 2008 presidential nomination.
The former first lady has come under attack from some in her own party for her 2002 vote for the war and her current opposition to a deadline for U.S. troop withdrawal.
“I am frankly tired of hearing the same stories from the administration's national security team,” Clinton told the AP. “The president changed his economic team, he changed his White House team - I think it's time for him to change his security and defense team.”
Clinton said her own view of the war has not changed.
“What's been clear is that despite my being a constant and persistent critic of how the president has conducted the war, it has not achieved the goals that he has set,” she said.
Earlier in the day, the senator wasted no time going after Rumsfeld when he testified in a morning hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“Under your leadership there have been numerous errors in judgment that have led us to where we are,” the New York Democrat said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. “We have a full-fledged insurgency and full-blown sectarian conflict in Iraq.”
The defense secretary seemed briefly stunned by the intensity of her attack, exclaiming, “My goodness,” before launching into a point-by-point defense.
He rejected some of her specific criticisms as simply wrong and said the war against terror will be a drawn-out process.
“Are there setbacks? Yes,” said Rumsfeld. “Is this problem going to get solved in the near term? I think it's going to take some time.”
The testy exchange between Clinton and Rumsfeld came after a top general told the panel violence in Iraq is probably as bad as he's ever seen it and the country may be descending into civil war.
“We hear a lot of happy talk and rosy scenarios, but because of the administration's strategic blunders - and frankly the record of incompetence in executing - you are presiding over a failed policy,” she said. “Given your track record, Secretary Rumsfeld, why should we believe your assurances now?”
Rumsfeld vehemently denied he'd ever glossed over the difficulties of the fighting in Iraq or elsewhere.
“There's a track record here,” countered Clinton. “This is not 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, when you appeared before this committee and made many comments and presented many assurances that have frankly proven to be unfulfilled.”
“Senator, I don't think that's true,” Rumsfeld fired back. “I have never painted a rosy picture. I've been very measured in my words and you'd have a dickens of a time trying to find instances where I've been excessively optimistic. I understand this is tough stuff.”
At that point, the Republican chairman of the committee, Sen. John Warner of Virginia, came to Rumsfeld's defense, saying his past comments had been balanced.
Clinton still shied away from a demand made by a growing number of Democrats: a deadline for withdrawing troops from Iraq.
The disagreement between the two extended to Afghanistan. The senator specifically faulted Rumsfeld for saying in 2002 that the Taliban was gone, noting that the extremist faction has grown stronger in recent months.
He conceded violence has escalated in Afghanistan, but added, “Does that represent failed policy? I don't know. I would say not.”
The defense secretary said he expected the violence there to follow a seasonal pattern and decline as winter approaches.
THAT TELLS US ONE THING……
Why don't you resign, you &^%*% )^%#( (%890 (*%(4 +#$*()_) COMMUNIST COW!
That's an insult to Communist Cows everywhere.
Reading between the lines here but it seems like she wants us to finish the job in Iraq.
Wouldn't this put her on the outs with the anti-war, let's all get converted or killed by muslims crowd?
But she does understand what plays well among the STOOPID base of the Democrat Party.
Why don't you resign, you &^%*% )^%#( (%890 (*%(4 +#$*()_) COMMUNIST COW!
Keep Clam, you'll have a stroke.
I agree Hillary, so why don't you, Kerry, Kennedy and Murtha resign.
She should resign from her favorite all you can eat resturant.
I would vote for ANYONE other than Miss Hillary. Including an orangutan.
The loathing I have for this genuinely evil woman knows no limits.
LG, puleezzeee, you do mean Ms. Clinton, wife of the lying rapist don't you?
She, and the media, are using the Big Lie at full tilt...They've repeated enough times that we're "losing," the morons in our midst are believing it.
Hillary who?
The secretary has lost credibility with the Congress and with the people
But WE know she meant:
The secretary has lost credibility with the Congress the minority-party-BDS-enraged-say-anything-as-long-as-it-hurts-the-President-democrats and with the people all of the moonbat-left-wing-paint-sniffers who agree with us!
Golly, I had no idea the Mrs. Clinton knew so much about military affairs. Oh yes, I know, she's on the Senate Armed Services Committee and all...but she's not the only boob on that panel(pun intended).
I wonder what Sen. Clinton would have to say about the French and Indian War, or the War of 1812, or the Mexican War, or...I could go on and on.
I swear, this woman astonishes me. She has positively no shame, but then she is "married" to one of the biggest fools to ever be POTUS.
Rodham's ideology and lust for power provide so much grist for the mill, why mention her weight?
She's trying to hold on to the left wing of the Democrat Party.
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