Democrats sweep US poll

Democrats swept Republicans from power in the US House of Representatives and moved close to victory in the Senate yesterday, dealing a sharp rebuke to President George W. Bush that led quickly to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation.

Mr Bush said he was "obviously disappointed" at the huge Democratic gains in elections fueled by voter anger over the Iraq war. But the resignation of Mr Rumsfeld, a lightning rod for war critics, was not directly tied to the election results, he said.

"Secretary Rumsfeld and I agreed that sometimes it's good to have a fresh perspective," Mr Bush told reporters. He added he shared "a large part" of the responsibility for the election losses and his Iraq policy was "not working well enough, fast enough."

He nominated former CIA director Robert Gates to replace Mr Rumsfeld, but Mr Gates would have to be confirmed by a dramatically reshaped Senate.

Democrats gained about 30 seats in the House and picked up five of the six Republican Senate seats they need for a majority. They led in the other one, Virginia, putting them near control of both chambers of Congress for the first time in 12 years.

But a final decision on Senate control could be delayed by a potential recount and possible legal challenges in Virginia, dredging up memories of the 2000 presidential election recount that lasted five weeks.

Virginia Democrat James Webb led Republican Sen. George Allen by about 7,000 votes out of 2.3 million cast. The final vote counting could take a week, with a winner certified on November 27 and any recount stretching into December, leaving Senate control uncertain.

The Allen campaign indicated it did not plan to concede before the process ended. "We'll see where the official tally stands on November 27 and we'll come back and visit with you then," Allen adviser Ed Gillespie told reporters in Richmond, Virginia.

The big Democratic victory, fueled by public discontent with the war in Iraq, corruption in Washington and Mr Bush's leadership, was likely to increase pressure for a change of course in Iraq. Democratic leaders sought a summit with Mr Bush on Iraq's future.

US stock markets were trading slightly lower as investors took in the election results.

The split control of government and narrow majorities in Congress, especially the Senate, were almost certain to spawn more partisan gridlock and political warfare during Mr Bush's final two years in the White House.

The Democratic victory gives the party control of House legislative committees that could investigate the Bush administration's most controversial decisions on foreign, military and energy policy.

Democratic control of the House will make Nancy Pelosi of California the first female speaker and could slam the brakes on much of Mr Bush's agenda and increase pressure for a change of course in Iraq.

Mr Bush telephoned his congratulations to Ms Pelosi and other Democratic leaders, pledging to work with them. He invited Ms Pelosi and the No. 2 House Democrat, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, to lunch at the White House today.

All 435 House seats, 33 of the 100 Senate seats and 36 of the 50 governorships were at stake. Democrats beat Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate and one of the Democrats' biggest targets this year.

Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, running as an independent, beat Democratic anti-war challenger Ned Lamont, who had defeated the former vice presidential nominee in the Democratic primary.

Rumsfeld factbox

• Donald Rumsfeld, born in Chicago on July 9, 1932, is a former college wrestler, Navy aviator, congressman from Illinois and corporate executive who held a variety of jobs in the Nixon and Ford administrations.

• He was a forceful presence as US defence secretary who designed and executed the Iraq war, and his legacy will be defined by a conflict costly to the US in lives and money.

• Mr Rumsfeld, President George W. Bush's Pentagon chief since 2001, directed invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. He sought to modernize the US military. He created the Guantanamo Bay jail for foreign terrorism suspects. He presided over the Defence Department during the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

• Mr Rumsfeld, an alternatively charming and caustic 74-year-old multimillionaire, wielded a level of influence as defence secretary rivalled perhaps only by Robert McNamara, who served presidents in the Vietnam War era.

• Admirers viewed Mr Rumsfeld as a dedicated patriot who reinvigorated a military weakened by insufficient funding in the 1990s, devised innovative war plans that toppled the Taliban leaders of Afghanistan and President Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and remained vigilant against threats to US security.

• Detractors painted him as a reckless warmonger who botched the Iraq occupation planning, sent too few troops, failed to anticipate a bloody insurgency, put soldiers into combat without enough armour, damaged the all-volunteer military and sullied America's reputation by sanctioning detainee abuse.

• Donald Rumsfeld accepted criticism. As he wrote in "Rumsfeld's Rules," his compilation of truisms dating back to the 1970s: "If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much."Another of his quotes may be equally apt: "It is easier to get into something than to get out of it." The Iraq war has cost far more than foreseen in financial and human terms. More than 2,800 US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis have died. The Iraq war has cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars.

• Mr Rumsfeld alienated some US allies in Europe, maintained icy relations with US lawmakers, battled with Cabinet rivals including former Secretary of State Colin Powell and intimidated some senior US military officers.

• He also took aim at war critics, In August, he gave a speech recalling those who sought to appease the Nazis before World War Two and asked, "Can folks really continue to think that free countries can negotiate a separate peace with terrorists?"

• A small group of retired generals demanded his resignation last spring, accusing him of strategic blunders in Iraq and disregarding military advice.

• In 2004, Mr Bush twice refused to accept Mr Rumsfeld's offer to resign amid the Abu Ghraib scandal.

• Mr Rumsfeld, one of the longest-serving defence secretaries, held the job twice. In 1975, President Gerald Ford, for whom he also served as White House chief of staff, made him at age 43, the youngest Pentagon chief. In 2001, Mr Bush made him the oldest.