Bush Cheers Saddam's Sentence

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — President Bush celebrated Saddam Hussein's death sentence as a victory for "Iraq's young democracy" and American security, highlighting yesterday's verdict in the last hours of an election campaign in which Republicans are suffering from public discontent with the Iraq war.

White House spokesman Tony Snow decried as "absolutely crazy" any notion that the end to Saddam's nine-month trial was timed to produce positive news on the divisive, unpopular war two days before Americans vote. The American government has always denied direct involvement in the trial, though suspicions persisted.

Mr. Snow didn't entirely set politics aside, asserting that American voters "ought to be heartened" by the verdict and its broader implications about the progress the administration insists is evident in Iraq.

"This is getting the Iraqis to stand up on their own," Mr. Snow said. "You can't have civil society without rule of law."

Mr. Bush painted Saddam's conviction and sentence as vindication of the sacrifices made by American soldiers in Iraq. More than 2,800 members of the U.S. military have died since the American-led invasion in March 2003.

"They've sacrificed for the security of the United States," the president said, speaking to reporters for two minutes in Texas before flying to campaign appearances on behalf of newly in-peril Republicans in Nebraska and Kansas. "Without their courage and skill, today's verdict would not have happened."

With the verdict a chance to recall Saddam's December 2003 capture by American troops in a hole in the ground — still one of the high points of the war for Mr. Bush — he repeated these points later during campaign visits to two of America's reddest states.

"Today, we witnessed a landmark event in the history of Iraq," Mr. Bush said in western Nebraska, where he was trying to boost GOP state Senator Adrian Smith in a tightened race against Democrat Scott Kleeb. Delivered in solid Bush Country, in an arena awash in red clothing, the president's Iraq lines earned the most sustained cheering of his speech.

"My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision and the world is better off for it," he said to raucous applause.

Democrats — hoping for large gains that could put them in control of the House and possibly the Senate — moved quickly to both applaud the sentence and repeat their campaign-trail argument that Mr. Bush's leadership on Iraq has been a failure.

"The scope of that failure is not lessened by the results of Saddam's trial," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat of California, poised to become House speaker if Democrats wrest the majority from the GOP.

A history of Election Day disappointments and a constantly shifting preelection landscape appeared to have Democrats a bit jittery. Senator Schumer of New York, in charge of Democratic campaign efforts in the Senate, said, "I don't think [Saddam's] conviction makes much of a difference in this election, even though it's a very good thing that happened."

Other Republicans backed Bush's contention of the verdict as evidence of success in Iraq."The United States and the world are safer because Saddam Hussein sits on death row, not in a palace in Baghdad plotting to harm millions of innocent Americans and Iraqis," House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, a Republican of Missouri, said.

But at least one Republican said the news must be viewed in the context of the difficult situation in Iraq.

"Saddam Hussein's trial is a step forward because it was a result of a legal system in operation, not a dictator in operation, so that's the good news," Senator Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, said on CNN's "Late Edition."