http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle....SA-RUMSFELD.xml
By Will Dunham - Reuters - Wed Aug 2, 2006
QUOTE
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Wednesday he will not testify publicly on the Iraq war to a key Senate committee due to a busy schedule, drawing sharp criticism from prominent Democrats.
Rumsfeld, known for frosty relations with some lawmakers, denied he was reluctant to face senators in public, and suggested critics were playing politics.
Rumsfeld will not testify on Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, charged with overseeing the Pentagon. He said he will meet with senators in a closed session with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and two generals.
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy blasted Rumsfeld.
"Avoiding a congressional hearing may take the sting out of the process for Secretary Rumsfeld, but it does nothing to reassure the American people or our men and women in uniform that we have a viable policy in Iraq," Kennedy said.
Clinton noted during another hearing before the committee that more than 2,500 U.S. troops have died in Iraq. "And this secretary of defense, I think, owes the American people more than he is providing."
Democrats in November elections will try to regain control of Congress from Republicans. Rumsfeld has been one of the Democrats' prime targets for criticism over the handling of the three-year-old Iraq war.
Testifying at Thursday morning's hearing will be Army Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, and Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, the top U.S. military officer.
Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, the committee's chairman, and the panel's top Democrat wrote Rumsfeld on July 26 "to confirm your invitation to testify" at the hearing on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Warner said on Wednesday "at no time did he refuse to come up here," adding the Senate Republican leadership preferred having Rumsfeld, Rice, Pace and Abizaid brief in private.
Clinton noted Rumsfeld's "interference, second-guessing and over-ruling" of top military officers.
"And I for one am deeply disturbed at the failures -- the constant, consistent failures -- of strategy with respect to Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere."
At the Pentagon, Rumsfeld said that "my calendar was such that to do it in the morning ... would have been difficult."
Without mentioning anyone by name, Rumsfeld added, "Let's be honest. Politics enters into these things. And maybe the person raising the question is interested in that." Clinton is a possible 2008 Democratic presidential candidate.
Rumsfeld has not testified publicly to the panel since February.
Democrats have used these committee hearings to savage Rumsfeld. At a 2005 hearing, Kennedy asked Rumsfeld, "Isn't it time for you to resign?" And Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia objected to Rumsfeld's "sneer," and said, "So get off your high horse when you come up here."
Rumsfeld, known for frosty relations with some lawmakers, denied he was reluctant to face senators in public, and suggested critics were playing politics.
Rumsfeld will not testify on Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, charged with overseeing the Pentagon. He said he will meet with senators in a closed session with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and two generals.
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy blasted Rumsfeld.
"Avoiding a congressional hearing may take the sting out of the process for Secretary Rumsfeld, but it does nothing to reassure the American people or our men and women in uniform that we have a viable policy in Iraq," Kennedy said.
Clinton noted during another hearing before the committee that more than 2,500 U.S. troops have died in Iraq. "And this secretary of defense, I think, owes the American people more than he is providing."
Democrats in November elections will try to regain control of Congress from Republicans. Rumsfeld has been one of the Democrats' prime targets for criticism over the handling of the three-year-old Iraq war.
Testifying at Thursday morning's hearing will be Army Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, and Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, the top U.S. military officer.
Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, the committee's chairman, and the panel's top Democrat wrote Rumsfeld on July 26 "to confirm your invitation to testify" at the hearing on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Warner said on Wednesday "at no time did he refuse to come up here," adding the Senate Republican leadership preferred having Rumsfeld, Rice, Pace and Abizaid brief in private.
Clinton noted Rumsfeld's "interference, second-guessing and over-ruling" of top military officers.
"And I for one am deeply disturbed at the failures -- the constant, consistent failures -- of strategy with respect to Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere."
At the Pentagon, Rumsfeld said that "my calendar was such that to do it in the morning ... would have been difficult."
Without mentioning anyone by name, Rumsfeld added, "Let's be honest. Politics enters into these things. And maybe the person raising the question is interested in that." Clinton is a possible 2008 Democratic presidential candidate.
Rumsfeld has not testified publicly to the panel since February.
Democrats have used these committee hearings to savage Rumsfeld. At a 2005 hearing, Kennedy asked Rumsfeld, "Isn't it time for you to resign?" And Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia objected to Rumsfeld's "sneer," and said, "So get off your high horse when you come up here."
