Army Times to call for Rumsfeld's resignation - CNN.com

Army Times to call for Rumsfeld's resignation - CNN.com:

An editorial to be published Monday in independent publications that serve the four main branches of the U.S. military will call for President Bush to replace Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

'Basically, the editorial says, it's clear now, from some of the public statements that military leaders are making, that he's lost the support and respect of the military leadership,' said Robert Hodierne, senior managing editor for the publications' parent company Army Times Publications.

'That they're starting to go public with that now, with their disagreements, added up with all of the other missteps we believe he's made, that it's time for him to be replaced,' Hodierne.

Army Times Publications publishes the Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and the Marine Corps Times.

It is the second time the publications have called for Rumsfeld to resign.

Bush has maintained that Rumsfeld will stay on the job until 2008. (Watch Bush say Rumsfeld is staying on the job -- 1:20 )

In May 2004, when the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal broke, an Army Times editorial said, 'This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential, even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war.'

The timing of Monday's editorial was prompted not by midterm elections, scheduled for Tuesday, but by Bush's statement earlier this week that he intends to keep Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney in their posts through the end of his term, Hodierne said.

No one running for midterm elections, he noted, would have the power to replace Rumsfeld.
Swaying conservative voters 'is not our aim"