National security takes center stage

WASHINGTON -- As Congress returned to Capitol Hill yesterday for its final pre-election push, both Republicans and Democrats sought to center the fall campaigns on national security issues, with Democrats pushing to oust Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the Iraq war and Republicans looking to authorize warrantless wiretaps of terrorist suspects.

The upcoming flurry of bills, campaign posturing, and political infighting over the Iraq war and homeland security underscores the fact that this year's congressional elections, which normally turn on local issues, will be influenced by the national agenda. Democrats believe the November elections for House members and some senators is their best chance in a decade to reclaim control of Congress, while Republicans are betting that concern over terrorism will trump voter disillusionment with President Bush and public skepticism about the war.

With that in mind, the Republicans have shelved high-profile bills on immigration and lobbying and ethics reforms for a streamlined agenda emphasizing domestic security.

Republican leaders in the House and Senate are planning votes this month on legislation concerning Pentagon spending, port security, bioterrorism, Bush's controversial warrantless wiretapping program , and military tribunals for terror suspects. The goal: allowing the GOP to tout its credentials in fighting the threat of terrorism.

``The bottom line is that there have been no terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11, and that is the ultimate measure of success," said Senate majority leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican. ``Democrats have urged retreat from Iraq, and, as we all know, that has become the central front in this war on terror."

But Democrats will argue that Bush and his allies in Congress have made the country less safe, mainly by bogging down the military in Iraq. They intend to hold an unusual no-confidence vote on the president's war conduct and Rumsfeld's leadership this week, and want the Pentagon to issue quarterly reports on the ``state of civil war" in Iraq.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who made the proposal, said those assessments will help determine the rules of engagement for US troops.

``If [Iraq] is civil war, what possibly is our mission?" said Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat. ``As long as the administration continues to deny the plain truth [about the war], America will be behind the curve and unable to adjust to the current realities on the ground."

The intense focus on national security in the final weeks before voters choose their congressional representatives reflects a strategy shift for both parties. Months ago, Republican leaders hoped that the races for House and Senate seats would turn on local issues and not the widely unpopular Iraq war, but the GOP is now eager to boast that it has defended the country better than the Democrats.

In the past two election cycles, Democrats have shied away from national security issues, which Republicans rode to electoral success. But party leaders have calculated that voters will see Iraq and homeland security as separate issues -- and agree that GOP leadership has failed on both fronts.

``The facts do not lie: Under the Bush administration and this Republican Congress, America is less safe, facing greater threats, and [is] unprepared for the dangerous world in which we live," said Senate minority leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat.

The politicking is picking up in advance of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In the latest in a series of speeches tied to that anniversary, Bush yesterday used terrorists' own words to urge continued vigilance -- and to stay committed to the US mission in Iraq.

``These evil men know that a fundamental threat to their aspirations is a democratic Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself," Bush said at a Washington gathering of the Military Officers Association of America. ``That is why we must not, and we will not, give the enemy victory in Iraq by deserting the Iraqi people."

Democrats, meanwhile, are setting their sights on Rumsfeld, whose prickly personality and flawed predictions of success in Iraq have drawn fire from war critics. Careful to separate the service of US troops from the Pentagon's civilian leadership, Democrats say Rumsfeld and his staff are responsible for creating a quagmire in Iraq.

``The brave rhetoric of this administration doesn't reflect the reality facing our brave soldiers in Iraq," said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Senate Democratic whip.

The White House yesterday issued a strong endorsement of Rumsfeld, and said the president has no plans to make changes at the Pentagon. ``Creating Don Rumsfeld as a bogeyman may make for good politics, but would make for a lousy strategy at this time," said White House press secretary Tony Snow.

Though Republican leaders called for bipartisan cooperation in the coming weeks, several of the items on their agenda seemed designed to highlight differences between the parties. The bills establishing terrorism tribunals and authorizing domestic wiretapping of terror suspects without a judge's permission are both expected to draw Democrats' opposition.

``As each of these issues come before the Senate, both Democrats and Republicans face a choice: Whether to continue taking the fight to terrorists abroad, or instead choose a path of appeasement and face them here at home," said Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican.

But Kennedy said voters are sick of Republicans resorting to ``the politics of fear."

``This foreign policy has been blunder after blunder after blunder," Kennedy said. ``I think people are getting it back home."