U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has stepped down, according to news reports, one day after Democrats gained one and possibly two houses of Congress in an election largely viewed as a referendum on President George W. Bush s Iraq policy. Rumsfeld was a highly contentious figure in the Bush administration, after several books and news stories portrayed the defense department s planning for Iraq as severely inadequate. Earlier this week, the Army Times, Navy Times, Marine Times, and Air Force Times newspapers, widely read by members of the military, called in an editorial for Rumsfeld s resignation.
