Battle for Congress heads to tense finish

WASHINGTON, Saturday (Reuters) - The battle for control of the U.S. Congress headed yesterday to a tense finish, with Democrats threatening to sweep Republicans out of power and President George W. Bush trying to stoke turnout among the party faithful.

Two years after a decisive election victory for Bush and his Republicans, polls indicated Democrats were positioned to recapture control of the House of Representatives on Tuesday for the first time since 1994 and make gains in the Senate.

As the race came down to the final stretch, Republican Bob Ney of Ohio resigned under pressure from the House yesterday, three weeks after pleading guilty in the Jack Abramoff political corruption scandal.

Ney said previously he would not seek re-election to a seventh two-year term in Tuesday's elections, but his move signaled Republicans were attempting to put the corruption issue behind them with just days to go.

With Bush's political legacy on the line, the president stumped in Missouri for endangered Republican Sen. Jim Talent and in Iowa for Republican Rep. Jim Nussle's campaign for governor. He attacked Democrats for failing to offer a concrete plan for Iraq's future and U.S. security.

“What's your plan?” he asked of Democrats, encouraging a Springfield, Missouri, audience to repeat the phrase. “Truth is the Democrats can't answer that question. Harsh criticism is not a plan for victory.”

Democrats said Bush had ignored calls for a change of strategy in Iraq and had no plan of his own to end the war. Growing public doubts about Iraq have helped fuel the Democratic surge in polls this year and the war has dominated campaign-trail debate in races around the country.

“We know that we have to gradually disengage from Iraq. The president has no plan to do that. Staying the course with a strategy that doesn't work is not a plan,” Democratic Party chief Howard Dean said on CNN.

Vice President Dick Cheney said the Iraq war was tough but “it is the right thing to do” and indicated the election outcome would have limited impact on Bush's war policy.

“I think it will have some effect, perhaps, in the Congress, but the president has made clear what his objective is, it is victory in Iraq and it is full speed ahead on that basis and that is exactly what we are going to do,” Cheney told ABC News in an interview.

All 435 House seats, 33 Senate seats and 36 governorships are at stake in the election. Democrats need to pick up 15 House seats and six Senate seats to claim majorities.

Independent analysts predict gains of 20 to 35 House seats for Democrats and at least three Senate seats. Senate control could hinge on close races for Republican-held seats in Virginia, Missouri, Tennessee and Montana.

Both parties poured millions of dollars into last-minute ads in hotly contested races from Connecticut to Nevada, hammering opponents in the final days of a campaign marked by a barrage of negative advertising and scandals.

Republicans have tried to make the election a contest between individual candidates and keep it from being a referendum on Bush or the Iraq war.

Bush warned on Friday of the dangers of Democratic control of Congress, saying Democrats would raise taxes. Democrats shrugged off the charges as nothing new.