McCaskill calls for Rumsfeld's firing; Talent does not
2006-10-19
Source: AP Wire
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rss feedShe has declared Iraq a mess, called for a redeployment in two years and chastised Republican Sen. Jim Talent for not questioning Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Now Missouri Senate challenger Claire McCaskill has joined various Democrats nationally in asserting that Rumsfeld should be fired.
McCaskill, Missouri's auditor, added Rumsfeld's ouster to her Iraqi war critique during her fifth and final debate against Talent in Missouri's nationally watched Senate race. Talent declined to say whether Rumsfeld should be retained or removed, but continued his defense of President Bush's war policies.
Responding to McCaskill's many criticisms, Talent declared: "She wants to pull out of Iraq, you can hear it, and the government will collapse and terrorists will take over."
The war in Iraq has been one of the most consistent themes both nationally and in Missouri's Senate campaign for the Nov. 7 elections. Democrats need to gain six seats to wrest control of the Senate from Republicans, and polls show Talent and McCaskill about even.
On Wednesday, McCaskill rattled off a list of what she said had been poor advice from Rumsfeld - that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when it did not; that sectarian conflict would not bog down the U.S. military; that there would be no U.S. occupation in Iraq.
"He should definitely be fired," McCaskill said in response to a question from a debate panelist. "He has not given one piece of advice to this president that turned out to be true."
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