Sununu seems beatable, but by whom?

Tom Curry National affairs writer • Profile • E-mail

WASHINGTON - Last November’s election massacre of Republicans in New Hampshire was not only satisfying for Democrats but also suggested they should be able to oust Republican Sen. John Sununu in 2008.

Democrats gained control of both houses of the state legislature, won both of the state’s U.S. House seats, and propelled Democratic governor John Lynch to reelection with 74 percent of the vote.

It might seem as if all the Democrats need to do now is decide who’ll have the honor of ushering Sununu into premature retirement.

Sununu, who last week urged President Bush to fire Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, is working overtime to voice his exasperation with the Bush administration. And this may help him in his re-election bid by establishing his bona fides as an independent.

Sununu's litany of criticism
Sununu came off the Senate floor repeatedly during last Thursday’s roll call votes on Iraq policy to give reporters his litany of criticism of Bush and Gonzales: “The handling of national security letters (akin to administrative search warrants), the shifting administration explanations on the terrorist surveillance program, the lack of supervision and communication as they review the dismissal of U.S. attorneys.”

Sununu has also spoken out against Bush policy and in support of a Democratic-led effort to allow detainees held at Guantanamo Navy Base to seek a writ of habeas corpus in federal court to challenge their detention. Granting such a right to the detainees, he argued, was important because “it speaks to people around the world as to what kind of a society we are and what principles we hold to be dearest.”

Last year Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, for which Sununu voted, which bars detainees from going to court to challenge their detention.

Despite his recent high-profile clashes with Bush, Sununu also voted in support of the president’s positions 96 percent of the time in 2004 and 95 percent of the time in 2003, according to the non-partisan Congressional Quarterly analyses.

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And last week he supported the president by voting against the Democratic resolution which would have ordered Bush to begin withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq within four months.

“We shouldn’t be committing additional troops until the Iraqi government has done more to fulfill commitments they’ve made…. We certainly shouldn’t have U.S. troops taking the lead dealing with sectarian violence,” he told reporters right before voting against the Democratic resolution.

A mistake to announce exit date
But he added, “Announcing to al Qaida members or Sunni insurgents the exact day that you’re going to begin withdrawing and the day that you’re going to complete withdrawing is irresponsible. We shouldn’t be sending that information to our enemies.”

Sununu’s re-election bid is important not only for New Hampshire but because, if all the breaks go the Democrats’ way, as most of them did in 2006, they can get within striking distance of 60 seats in the Senate, enough to defeat Republican filibusters.

Who’d be the strongest candidate against Sununu?

The two Democrats in the race so far are unsuccessful 2002 House candidate Katrina Swett and Portsmouth, N.H. Mayor Steve Marchand.

Unlike Swett, who lost her House race in 2002 despite far outspending her opponent, Marchand has in fact won elections as city councilman and mayor of a city of some 20,000 residents.

Marchand is 33 years old, brisk, confident, and can take credit for helping a curb tax increase in his city.

He’s at home discussing municipal management: “We had one-and-a-half feet of snow on Valentine’s day. We had sand and salt trucks out. The big challenge is manpower and fatigue.”

But is he ready to take the leap from managing snowstorms to dealing with Guantanamo detainees and Iranian nuclear weapons?

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