Right-hand man taking a left turn

BY GLENN THRUSH | Newsday Washington Bureau

October 27, 2006

WASHINGTON - Stephen Herbits - Donald Rumsfeld's former right-hand man at the Pentagon and once a trusted Iraq adviser - has allied himself with the defense secretary's nemesis, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Herbits, credited with warning Rumsfeld about poor post-war planning in late 2002, has contributed $10,000 to Hill PAC, Clinton's leadership committee, according to federal campaign filings. He contributed $5,000 in December 2005 and chipped in another $5,000 in September 2006, just weeks after the New York Democrat made national headlines by demanding Rumsfeld resign.

Herbits, 64, who is a gay-rights activist, has contributed about $40,000 to Democrats in the past five years.

He didn't return calls to his Miami home yesterday.

In 2001, Rumsfeld hired Herbits as a consultant to help him select senior staff. He was later asked to stay on to assist Rumsfeld, whom he first met in the Nixon administration, in planning the Iraq invasion and reconstruction. Herbits, who was also close to Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Department hawk Paul Wolfowitz, was part of a neo-conservative policy committee that convinced President George W. Bush to invade Iraq.

But in 2004, Herbits penned a scathing internal Pentagon memo calling his friend's management style "arrogant" and comparing him to rigid Nixon chief of staff H.R. Haldeman, according to author Bob Woodward. Herbits was particularly troubled by Rumsfeld's zeal to purge former Baath Party members from the army and police, moves that many believe fueled the Sunni insurgency.

Still, Herbits, now secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress, has publicly praised his old friend, defending him against attacks by former commanders in a July 2005 Washington Times op-ed piece.