President Bush Puts War on Terror At Top of Republican Midterm Election Agenda; Democrats Stepping Up Attacks on Bush Administration's Entire National Security Strategy and Policies
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, President Bush puts the war on terror at the top of the Republican midterm election agenda. Democrats say the president's conduct of the war in Iraq is the real issue. We'll have complete coverage. And the Republican Party has abandoned any effort to push the president's and the Senate's pro-amnesty agenda for illegal aliens through Congress before the midterm elections. Former presidential candidate, best-selling author Pat Buchanan accuses President Bush of dereliction of duty for failing to secure or borders. He's our guest here tonight.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT, news, debate and opinion for Tuesday, September 5th. Live in New York, Lou Dobbs.</s>DOBBS: Good evening, everybody. President Bush today strongly defended his policies in the war on terror in a speech designed to set the agenda for the upcoming midterm elections. President Bush, as he has done repeatedly since September 11th, declared the United States is safer but not yet safe. Democrats say President Bush is trying to avoid responsibility for the escalating violence in Iraq. Insurgents there have now killed 12 of our troops over the past three days. Ed Henry reports from the White House on the president's efforts to make terrorism the central issue in the midterm elections. Andrea Koppel reports from Capitol Hill on the Democrats' battle to focus on the president's conduct of the war in Iraq instead. And Christine Romans is here with a special report on the financial struggle of middle class Americans and their families, an issue Republicans and Democrats are all but ignoring. We begin with Ed Henry in Washington -- Ed.</s>ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Lou, today was part two in the president's latest series of speeches on the war on terror. We're just learning, though, that part three in this series will come tomorrow at 1:45 in the East Room here at the White House. The president will be focusing on that Hamdan decision that came down earlier this summer where the Supreme Court basically said the president does not have a blank check in dealing with the war on terror. The president tomorrow, in the process of delivering this speech, will also deliver legislation to Capitol Hill dealing with detainees at Guantanamo Bay. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino saying, "The president will discuss how our policies are keeping the American people safe," how they're trying to strike a balance between keeping tries off the streets of America, but also bringing justice. This -- today's speech, though, came nearly five years after the president vowed he'd get Osama bin Laden dead or alive. But today the president acknowledged the terrorists are still a major threat all around the world and took the extraordinary step of quoting bin Laden's own words in letters to followers, also what the president called grisly al Qaeda training manuals to dramatize how dangerous the terrorist group is right now. A balancing act for the president, because politically this seems like it could be a positive ripped right out of the Karl Rove playbook that worked in 2002 and 2004. But this also could play into what Democrats are saying, claiming that the White House has actually made the country less safe. In his speech today, the president said al Qaeda has been weakened, but then he seemed to elevate Osama bin Laden a bit by comparing him to Adolf Hitler.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. The question is, will we listen? Will we pay attention to what these evil men say? America and our coalition partners have made our choice. We're taking the words of the enemy seriously. We're on the offense. We will not rest, we will not retreat, and we will not withdraw from the fight until this threat to civilization has been removed.</s>HENRY: The president adding that for al Qaeda, Iraq is not a distraction from their war on America, contending once again that Iraq is the central battlefield in the war on terror. But a new CNN Opinion Research Poll suggesting the public is not necessarily buying that claim from the president. Only 45 percent of Americans saying Iraq is part of the war on terror, while 53 percent say it's not part of the war on terror, let alone the central front -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Ed, the elevation of Osama bin Laden in the president's rhetoric and, in fact, contrasting him to Lenin and to Hitler, is a real departure from what has been his path over the last several years, trying to downplay Osama bin Laden, now pushing him forward. That seems to be an interesting political calculation.</s>HENRY: Absolutely right. In fact, a couple of years ago, when the president was not naming Osama bin Laden in his public speeches, reporters started asking about it, and the White House response was essentially that the war on terror does not come down to one person. Now it seems like the White House is reversing course a bit, possibly giving the state of some of these public opinion polls -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: And reversing course a bit, as you put it, to compare him to Hitler, to Lenin, and to make him the central figure here is a very interesting political change of tactic. We thank you very much. Ed Henry from the White House. Insurgents killed 12 more of our troops in Iraq over the Labor Day Weekend. Two of our troops are being killed on average each and every day in Iraq. 2,654 of our troops have been killed in this war, 19,773 wounded, 8,991 seriously wounded. Democrats are making Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his management of the war in Iraq a major issue of their approach to the election campaign. They're demanding Rumsfeld's immediate resignation. Democrats are also stepping up their attacks on the Bush administration's entire national security strategy and policies. Andrea Koppel reports from Capitol Hill.</s>ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Rule one when waging war, even a political war: attack, attack, attack. And as part of their September offensive, Democrats are pouncing on the Republican strong suit, national security.</s>SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: Today, thanks to the efforts of the Third Way organization, Senate Democrats are releasing a report that examines by the numbers Bush national security failures.</s>KOPPEL: The Democrats' battle plan: focus on Iraq and terrorism -- issues voters care about most this election year -- and force Republicans to play defense.</s>SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), MINORITY WHIP: If we are not in a civil war in Iraq, we are so perilously close it's hard to imagine the difference.</s>KOPPEL: It doesn't hurt when one of those Democrats delivering the message...</s>REID: I'm honored to have former supreme allied commander General Wesley Clark with us today.</s>KOPPEL: ... is a decorated war veteran.</s>GEN. WESLEY CLARK, FMR. NATO COMMANDER: This administration and the Republican leadership in the Congress have weakened our country and made Americans less safe.</s>KOPPEL: In rapid-fire succession, Democrats hit Republicans hard, releasing a 27-page report entitled "The Neo Con," highlighting previous claims of President Bush's national security failures. While on the Senate floor, another Democrat offered an amendment to try to force the Pentagon to admit Iraq has descended into civil war.</s>SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: And the September 1st report prepared by the Department of Defense on stability and security in Iraq reaffirms what the American people already understand: the conditions of civil war exist, violence in Iraq is spiraling out of control, and staying the course is not a viable option.</s>KOPPEL: But Republicans punch back, calling Democrats obstructionists.</s>SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: Democrats blocked reauthorization of the Patriot Act for months. Democrats are blocking nominees to critical national security endeavors. Democrats have blocked expediting our national missile defense system. Democrats have voiced opposition to the NSA terrorist surveillance program.</s>KOPPEL: And fired off an aggressive press release entitled "No Confidence: Why Americans Don't Trust Dems with Global War on Terror," accusing Democrats of opposing the Patriot Act, which Republicans say is an essential tool in fighting terror.</s>KOPPEL: And Democrats say they plan to keep up the pressure in coming days. Tomorrow they plan to offer up what's known as a vote of no confidence on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, while Republicans will also be pushing back hard, pushing their legislation, like warrantless wiretaps, looking towards what kind of military tribunals there should be for Guantanamo detainees, and, of course, funding for homeland security and next year's Pentagon budget. All of those things, Lou, have one common denominator: national security -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Thank you very much. Andrea Koppel from Capitol Hill. Democrats and Republicans are all but ignoring another critically important issue for voters and our American families -- the outright war on our middle class. Wages for working men and women in this country and financial pressures on their families have worsened over the past five years. But college tuition, gasoline prices and housing costs escalating higher. Christine Romans reports.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Senate will come to order.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Your lawmakers are back at work, but maybe out of touch with the topic around America's dinner tables.</s>BARBARA EHRENREICH, AUTHOR, "BAIT AND SWITCH": Washington is a little -- in a little bit of a bubble that there's a real disconnect between what they see and what the average American is experiencing right now.</s>ROMANS: What the average American is experiencing right now is a growing gap between the top and the bottom. More children without health insurance, wages barely keeping up with inflation, stagnant wages, even for college-educated workers. And the polls show it. The economy tops the list of voter concerns when heading to the polls this November. Trumping, Iraq and terrorism. But Washington seems to be missing the message.</s>ROSS EISENBREY, ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE: Maybe it is that people in Washington are working so hard to raise money. So they're talking to corporations, they're talking to other elite people, that they are out of touch with the average family.</s>ROMANS: And the average family is in a bind. He says after inflation the household income of working families is down 5.4 percent since 2000.</s>DAVID GERGEN, FMR. PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: The truth is, we're living more and more in a bifurcated economy in which if you're at the top you're doing really well. But if you're at the bottom or near the bottom you're doing really badly. And that -- that -- I think that the Republican rhetoric will have to change. I mean, they -- you can't seem as a governing party to be as out of touch as some of their rhetoric has been over Labor Day.</s>ROMANS: Out of touch and apparently not believed by the American people. Only nine percent of Americans polled last week think the economy is good.</s>ROMANS: Now, many believe this could be a golden opportunity for the Democrats if they can capitalize on it. Voters tend to blame the party in power. And angry voters tend to go to the polls in the greatest numbers -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: And, of course, the Democratic Party is precisely where the Republican Party is, in the hands of special interests, corporate interests, and all but ignoring middle class working men and women and their families. Christine, thank you very much. Christine Romans. Still ahead here, the illegal alien lobby is failing to convince Americans to support their pro-amnesty agenda. We'll have that special report. And former presidential candidate, best-selling author Pat Buchanan says President Bush guilty of dereliction of duty for failing to secure our borders. Buchanan is author of the new best-selling book, "State of Emergency." He's among our guests here tonight. And a school board considering what action, if any, to take against a school bus driver who ordered black students to sit at the back of the bus. We'll have a special report tonight from Coushatta, Louisiana, and a great deal more still ahead right here.