Bush making final push for US Republicans

WASHINGTON, Nov 2: President George W. Bush launches a final drive to try to help Republicans maintain control of the U.S. Congress, arguing that the United States must stay in Iraq despite the war's unpopularity.

''I think most Republicans understand that if we were to leave before the job is done, America will be less secure,'' Bush said yesterday in an interview with Reuters and other news agencies.

Polls before Tuesday's congressional elections show Democrats positioned to win power in the House of Representatives for the first time since 1994 and threatening Republican control of the Senate.

Bush will travel to states where his presence might make a difference in turning out Republican voters over the remaining days until the elections, starting with stops in Montana, Nevada, Missouri, Iowa and Colorado.

The personal stakes are high. A Democratic-led House or Senate would offer a more challenging stance to Bush on Iraq and other issues in his remaining two years in office.

Even some Republicans have been distancing themselves from Bush's Iraq policy under pressure from voters. Bush, asked about that in the interview, was not resentful.

''People will run the race they need to run,'' he said.

Despite some expert predictions that Republicans could be facing a rout on Tuesday, Bush insisted the pundits would be proved wrong and his party would keep control of both the House and Senate.

''I remind people of 2002; nobody said we could increase the House or the Senate for a president who just got in. Secondly, 2004, a lot of people had me gone. Two-thousand-six, I've heard the same prognostications. I believe we're going to hold the House and the Senate,'' he said.

In campaigns for the elections, many Democrats have called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign and some Republicans have expressed doubts about his leadership after an October of unrelenting violence and 104 U.S. troop deaths -- the highest toll in nearly two years.

Bush rejected the pressure, saying he wanted Rumsfeld to stay on, opening himself to charges he is pursuing a ''stay-the-course'' strategy with no end in sight to the war.

''President Bush's declaration that he wants Secretary Rumsfeld to remain in office until the end of his presidency ensures a continuation of the failed policies that sent our troops to Iraq without sufficient equipment or a plan to complete their mission,'' said California Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who would become House speaker if Democrats take command of the House.

Bush planned to argue in his stump speeches that Democrats did not have a plan for victory in Iraq -- a charge Democrats make about him.

''When you really think about it, a national party does not have a plan to achieve victory. They have a plan to criticize.

They have a plan to second-guess, but they don't have a plan for victory, and we do,'' Bush said.

REUTERS