WASHINGTON - Representative John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat and Vietnam War veteran pushing for a quick withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, on Sunday mocked Karl Rove, the president's senior adviser, for championing the war while "sitting in his air-conditioned office on his big, fat backside."

Mr. Murtha, in an appearance on the NBC News program "Meet the Press," was responding to a speech Mr. Rove delivered in New Hampshire last week attacking Democrats for what he called "that party's old pattern of cutting and running."

When Mr. Murtha was asked on Sunday for his reaction to Mr. Rove's remarks, he said: "He's making a political speech. He's sitting in his air-conditioned office on his big, fat backside saying, 'Stay the course.' That's not a plan."

Mr. Murtha spoke as the Bush administration pressed ahead with its campaign to seize the political offensive on Iraq — a push that included President Bush's surprise visit to Baghdad early last week.

The White House spokesman, Tony Snow, made the rounds on the Sunday morning political programs, saying that President Bush had every intention of sticking with the course he had set in Iraq, even as opinion polls suggested that most Americans were increasingly uneasy about the war.

"The president understands people's impatience — not impatience but how a war can wear on a nation," Mr. Snow said on the CNN program "Late Edition." "He understands that. If somebody had taken a poll in the Battle of the Bulge, I dare say people would have said, 'Wow, my goodness, what are we doing here?' But you cannot conduct a war based on polls."

In an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Mr. Snow also pressed the administration's case against setting a deadline for bringing troops home, contending that such an approach would undermine the nation's fight against global terrorism.

"You've got to keep in mind the situation in Iraq is critical in a lot of ways," he said. "It is one of many places in the larger war on terror. If we succeed in Iraq and we establish a democratic benchmark, that has a ripple effect not only through the region, but throughout the world. And the people who are opposing the United States know it. Now, if the United States says we're going to get out by some certain date, what does it do? No. 1, it emboldens the people who have been fighting against democracy."

Last week, the House approved a resolution vowing there will be "completion of the mission" in Iraq and rejecting any "arbitrary" deadline for an American troop withdrawal.

The debate continues this week in the Senate, where a number of Democrats are trying to come up with a plan that does not call for an immediate pullout but rather puts in place goals or a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops.

Appearing on "Late Edition," Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said that she and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, would introduce a resolution on Tuesday calling for a phased withdrawal and including a timetable.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

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