Durbin: Rumsfeld Should Go as Iraq Goes "From Bad to Terrible"
    By Ann Sanner
    The Associated Press

    Tuesday 18 April 2006

    Springfield, Ill. - U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin called Tuesday for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to be replaced and said he hopes Congress will debate the issue next week.

    "This situation has gone from bad to terrible, and I think it's time for new leadership in the Pentagon," the Illinois Democrat told reporters.

    Durbin, the Senate's second-highest ranking Democrat, said he is talking to other lawmakers about the possibility of voting on whether they still have confidence in Rumsfeld.

    "Let the Senate go on record," he said.

    His call comes after six retired generals have publicly called for Rumsfeld's resignation, accusing him of mishandling the Iraq War, ignoring advice of field commanders and managing arrogantly.

    "We can't ignore that," Durbin said. "We owe it to the soldiers to stand up for them and say if the policymakers at the top aren't doing their job, they'll be replaced."

    At a briefing at the Pentagon on Tuesday, Rumsfeld said he would not consider resigning to ease political pressure on Bush and Republicans in Congress. The former Illinois congressman said he is proud of his five-year tenure at the Pentagon.

    "The president knows, as I know, there are no indispensable men.... He knows that I serve at his pleasure, and that's that," Rumsfeld said.

    President Bush continued to show support for Rumsfeld Tuesday.

    "I'm the decider and I decide what's best," Bush told reporters in the Rose Garden. "And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."

    Another Illinois Democrat, Sen. Barack Obama, has suggested Rumsfeld should go.

    "If the president wants to continue to be saddled by somebody who the military thinks is ineffective, then that is his authority as commander in chief, but I think it's one more bit of bad judgment" Obama said Monday.

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    AP Military Writer Robert Burns in Washington, DC, contributed to this report.