McCain: Bush Pursuit of Iraq a 'Train Wreck'

Feb. 22, 2007 — -- Proving that presidential infighting isn't just for Democrats, Republican front-runner Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., took several sharply worded shots at the Bush administration this week, distancing himself from an unpopular president and an unpopular war while wooing the right Republicans who put the president in power and once before denied McCain the White House.

McCain's latest anti-Bush tirade came during a joint appearance Wednesday in California with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican.

The two leaders met to discuss energy and the environment, but the subject turned to Iraq.

Though McCain is a staunch supporter of the president's plan to add troops in Iraq, the 2000 Bush foe and 2008 contender called Bush's initial pursuit of the Iraq War "a train wreck" and labeled the administration's record on global warming as "terrible."

During McCain's appearance with Schwarzenegger on the docks of the Los Angeles Harbor, the senator recalled "no cooperation from the administration" at recent Senate hearings on global warming and described Bush's recent commitment to global warming as "long overdue."

McCain's verbal lashing put President Bush in the company of his former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whom McCain blasted Monday as "one of the worst secretaries of defense in history."

"We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement -- that's the kindest word I can give you of Donald Rumsfeld -- of this war," McCain told a crowd of 800-plus supporters at a retirement community near Hilton Head Island, S.C.

"The price is very, very heavy, and I regret it enormously," the Vietnam War veteran and former prisoner of war said.

As the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services committee, McCain berated Rumsfeld for not putting enough troops on the ground in Iraq to succeed.

The White House stood by Rumsfeld and called on McCain to apologize for his remarks.

"I just fundamentally disagree with John," Vice President Dick Cheney told ABC News in an exclusive interview from Tokyo.

Cheney continued to tell ABC News' Jonathan Karl, who is traveling with the vice president, that "John said some nasty things about me the other day, and then next time he saw me, ran over to me and apologized. Maybe he'll apologize to Rumsfeld."