White House defends Rumsfeld from McCain criticism

[babylonsister]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2007-02-20T202855Z_01_N20331086_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-MCCAIN.xml&src=rss

White House defends Rumsfeld from McCain criticism

Tue Feb 20, 2007 3:29pm ET25

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House defended Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday from criticism from Republican Sen. John McCain that he was one of the worst U.S. defense secretaries ever for his handling of the Iraq war.

McCain, one of President George W. Bush's key allies in the U.S. Congress on Iraq, is running for his party's nomination to be president in 2008.

"I think that Donald Rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history," the Arizona senator and former Vietnam War veteran said on the campaign trail in South Carolina on Monday.

The White House backed Rumsfeld but was careful not to criticize McCain in doing so.

"We think Donald Rumsfeld was an enormously consequential and effective secretary of defense and somebody who led to the transformation of the Department of Defense. Senator McCain holds a different point of view," said White House spokesman Tony Snow.

more...