McCain Myth Buster: John McCain and Rumsfeld's Iraq Strategy
February 19, 2008
After casting himself as a "Maverick" in 2000, the new John McCain is walking in lockstep with President Bush, pandering to the right wing of the Republican Party, and embracing the ideology he once denounced. On the campaign trail McCain has callously abandoned many of his previously held positions, even contradicted himself, in a blatant attempt to remake himself into a candidate Republicans can accept in 2008. So just who is the real John McCain? The Democratic National Committee will present a daily fact aimed at exposing the man behind the myth.
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain stood up to Rumsfeld's failed Iraq strategy.
On the campaign trail, John McCain tries to bolster his "maverick" image by claiming he was the only one who stood up to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's failed Iraq strategy. As McCain said during the CNN debate in January, "I'm the only one that said that Rumsfeld had to go."
But John McCain's record tells a different story. As the Washington Post reported this weekend, McCain did not call for Rumsfeld's dismissal. In fact, in addition to being one of the most vocal cheerleaders for the Bush-Rumsfeld war strategy in Iraq from Day One, McCain refused to join Democrats in calling for Rumsfeld to be fired in 2004 and 2006. As is so often the case with the so-called maverick, McCain's flip-flop on Rumsfeld reeks of politics. As the Washington Post reported this weekend, McCain's efforts to exaggerate his criticisms of Rumsfeld come as he tries to "pivot toward the general election, where his embrace of the war presumably will not prove as popular as it has been with the Republican base." [Washington Post, 2/16/08]
The truth is, McCain is nothing more than a loyal Bush Republican who has sold out his principles to cozy up to the right wing of his Party. On Iraq and everything else, a vote for McCain is a vote for a third Bush term.
2006: McCain Refused to Join Calls For Rumsfeld's Resignation, Said He Would Work With Rumsfeld. "But the president has the right and earned the right as the president of the United States to appoint his team--and he has confidence in Secretary Rumsfeld. I will continue to work with Secretary Rumsfeld as much as I can as long as he is secretary of Defense. We have to, because we need to win this war." [East Valley Tribune, 4/15/2006; http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/63311]
2004: McCain Refused To Call For Secretary Rumsfeld's Resignation. McCain would not call for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation, saying that the President "can have the team that he wants around him." McCain said that he respected Bush's decision to keep Rumsfeld around. McCain said, "I respect the president. The president of the United States was re-elected by a majority of the American people, and I respect his right. And I will work with the president obviously and with the secretary of defense." [MSNBC.com, 12/15/04; CNN.com, 12/5/04]
2001: McCain Echoed Rumsfeld on Case for War. During a November 2001 episode of ABC's Nightline Bush's Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former CIA Director James Woolsey and Senator John McCain all made the case for invading Iraq, using the same misleading rhetoric. Rumsfeld said, "there is no question but that there has been a good deal of interaction between the terrorists in the Philippines and the al-Qaeda and people in Iraq." Woolsey agreed, saying "there's good evidence that [Iraq] has been involved in terrorist acts against the United States since--and quite possibly--September 11th and even possibly the anthrax." Given a chance to oppose Rumsfeld's strategy at the start, McCain echoed the Administration line: "There has been significant involvement on the part of the Iraqis and Saddam Hussein in the acts of terror that have been committed in the past." [Nightline, 11/28/01]
