Reply #16: Norm Coleman - Minn. Rep Calls for New White House Team

[UpInArms]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-cong/2006/mar/14/031400781.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - Saying the White House has been afflicted by a political "tin ear," Sen. Norm Coleman on Tuesday called on President Bush to bring in a new team.

"I have some concerns about the team that's around the president," said Coleman, a Minnesota Republican with close ties to Bush. "I think you need to take a look at it."

Coleman cited the White House's handling of the response to Hurricane Katrina, the failed nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and the now-scuttled plans for Dubai-based DP World to take over terminals at six major U.S. seaports.

"All of a sudden we're hearing the phrase 'tin ear,'" Coleman said in a telephone interview. "That's a phrase you shouldn't hear. The fact that you're hearing it says that the kind of political sensitivity, the ear-to-the-ground that you need in the White House, isn't there at the level that it needs to be."

Coleman declined to specify which staff members should be replaced, or what new people should be brought in. He said he hadn't talked to Bush or anyone at the White House about his concerns.

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