Bush faces media
2005-10-05 08:01
Washington - President George W Bush on Tuesday scrambled to inject new momentum into his second White House term, hosting his first formal news conference for four months after a torrid summer of troubles at home and abroad.
Just eight months after laying out an aggressive agenda, Bush was forced to insist he had "plenty" of political capital left, despite slumping opinion polls, an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, and severe criticism of his role in the Hurricane Katrina debacle.
"My job is to lead and solve problems," said Bush who appeared more tired and less swaggering in the White House Rose Garden encounter than during his last prolonged sparring match with reporters on May 31.
Despite raging violence in Iraq, he vowed United States troops would not leave before victory was assured. He also defended his latest nominee for the Supreme Court, shouldered blame for missteps in the chaotic New Orleans rescue effort and raised concern over a possible avian flu pandemic.
Didn't address all issues
"We're not leaving Iraq. We will succeed in Iraq," Bush said.
"Iraq's a part of a global war on terror," he added, in the latest bid by his administration to frame the conflict as a vital front in a global battle for US security, and not, as some critics argue, as an unnecessary diversion from the fight against al-Qaeda.
"I've said that endlessly. I will continue to say it because I know it's true."
Just over a week before Iraqis vote in a vital referendum on the draft post-Saddam Hussein constitution, Bush insisted progress was being made on a two-track strategy in Iraq, designed to drive democratic development while snuffing out foreign fighters such as al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Five weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast and exposed Bush to fierce criticism over his stewardship of the federal relief effort, the president called on Congress to bear most of the multi-billion cost of reconstruction by cutting other programs.
"I will take all the responsibility for the failures at the federal level," he said, and called for the construction of more oil refineries, after hurricanes Katrina and Rita hammered consumers with more unpopular hikes in gasoline prices.
As fears rise that avian flu could mutate into a virus passed between humans and kill millions of people in a pandemic, Bush for the first time raised the prospect of using troops to quarantine affected areas if the humans became infected in the United States.
Bush declined to discuss a politically sensitive probe thought to be drawing to a close into whether senior members of the White House staff were involved in outing CIA spy Valerie Plame, after her husband criticised his rationale for going to war against Saddam Hussein.