GOP to focus on terror war in campaign

AUSTIN, Texas -- President Bush's top political adviser said Friday that Republicans will make the president's handling of the war on terrorism the centerpiece of their strategy to win back the Senate and keep control of the House in this year's midterm elections.

"We can go to the country on this issue because they trust the Republican Party to do a better job of protecting and strengthening America's military might and thereby protecting America," Karl Rove told the Republican National Committee meeting in Austin.

Rove's remarks are the first time an administration official has said the GOP will use the war as a partisan issue. Up till now, Bush has stressed that the fight against terrorism is a bipartisan and unifying issue for the country.

Rove's remarks infuriated Democrats who have sought to align themselves in full support of the administration in the conduct of the war.

"If the Bush White House now politicizes the war, that would be nothing short of despicable," said Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe. "The Democratic leaders have stood with this president on this war on terrorism and for Karl Rove to make it political would be an affront to the integrity of the U.S. military."

In addition to hearing from Rove, the RNC on Friday elected former Montana governor and Enron Corp. lobbyist Marc Racicot as party chairman, brushing off concerns about his ties to the failed energy giant. He assured GOP leaders that he will no longer do the kind of lobbying that he did for energy giant Enron before its collapse.

But Racicot refused to sever his ties with the Houston law firm Bracewell & Patterson, for which he served as an Enron lobbyist last year. He will continue to be paid by the firm -- more than the $150,000 annual salary he otherwise would receive from the Republican Party if he left his job -- and will continue to do unspecified work for a group of clients he refused to identify.

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