Roundup: Bush congratulates Democrats' win, shares responsibility

U.S. President George W. Bush, at a press conference in the White House on Wednesday, said he congratulates the Democrats' win in taking control of the House of Representatives in midterm legislative elections and he shares responsibility for the Republicans' loss.

Bush said he will meet with Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats' leader who will likely become the next speaker of the House of Representatives.

"She's coming to the Oval Office later this week. I'm going to sit down and talk with her," Bush said.

"I believe on a lot of issues we can find common ground. There's a significant difference between common ground and abandon principles. She's not going to abandon her principles and I'm not going to abandon mine. I do believe we have common ground to move forward on," Bush said.

Bush said he shares "a large part of responsibility" for the Republicans' loss in conceding the House of Representatives to the Democrats in the elections.

Bush also said that he was "obviously disappointed" with the midterm elections results, and acknowledged that the Democrats' victory is a sign that Americans are frustrated by a lack of progress in Iraq and said he looks forward to working with the Democrats in the Congress.

In a major announcement, Bush announced the resignation of defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld because of the unpopular war in Iraq and former CIA Director Robert Gates will succeed him.

However, Bush said he has full confidence in Vice President Dick Cheney and the vice president would stay until the end of his term in January 2009.

Cheney and Rumsfeld have been the main advocates of the Iraq war, in which over 2800 U.S. soldiers have been killed.

Bush's press conference came after the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in Tuesday's key midterm legislative elections. The results were signs that the Americans were unhappy with the handling of the Iraq war by the Bush administration as well as corruption and scandals of the Republicans.

Source: Xinhua