WASHINGTON - 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."
I think this "tin ear" problem has lead to a lot of frustration from Bush supporters in this country. I have heard many ask why it seems as though the Bush administration is constantly "on the ropes." I have recently found myself asking where the confidence and swagger that seemed to characterize the Bush administration in the first term has gone.
I think maybe the President could still revive some of that confidence by bringing some new people into his administration. Bush's personnel changes have been fairly stagnant compared to other Presidential administrations. Chief of Staff Andrew Card, for instance, has served in his position since 2000 when most Chief of Staffs tend to last two, maybe three years at most. Which isn't to say that there is anything wrong with Mr. Card, only that maybe some new blood could snap the President's second term out of the slump it seems to be in.