White House Rejects Call For Shakeup
The White House is brushing off reports that its senior staff is tired and that some Republicans believe changes are in order, CBS News correspondent Peter Maer reports.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday, "I'm tired of some of the questions" about whether Mr. Bush is going to replace some of his senior advisers. "The president has a great team and he appreciates the job that they're doing," McClellan said.
He brushed the reports aside as "inside Washington pontificating and second-guessing." He declined to directly respond to Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's comment that the White House has "a tin ear."
Republicans are nervous about the president's plummeting approval ratings and a string of White House woes, from the administration's fumbled handling of relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina and an uproar over a secret eavesdropping program to unhappiness about Iraq, the now-abandoned Dubai ports deal, the failed nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and Mr. Bush's failure to achieve the centerpiece of his domestic agenda — an overhaul of Social Security.
The GOP's concern is heightened by anxiety over the midterm congressional elections in November.
Senior Republicans have fretted for months that Mr. Bush's team is exhausted and has run out of fresh ideas after more than five years on the job with little change in his inner circle. At a Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis, Tenn., last week, some delegates said they were shaken by the White House's performance and suggested Mr. Bush may need a new team.
Coleman, R-Minn., added momentum to shakeup rumors by publicly voicing his concerns in an Associated Press interview.
"I have some concerns about the team that's around the president," said Coleman, who has close ties to Mr. Bush. "I think you need to take a look at it."
"All of a sudden, we're hearing the phrase 'tin ear,"' Coleman said. "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."
Mr. Bush's job approval remains at an all-time low of 34 percent in the latest CBS News poll. Sixty-six percent of Americans say the country is on the wrong track, a five-point jump since January.
McClellan bristled at questions about a shakeup.
"The president has a smart, capable and experienced team that is fully committed to helping him advance his agenda and get things done for the American people," the spokesman said, noting that Mr. Bush was devoting part of his day to talking about health care and prescription drug benefits for seniors.
When questions persisted, McClellan said, "You know, it's interesting, here's now the third question on this, when I just talked about some very important priorities that the American people care about, and here we are asking these questions."
"This is part of the inside Washington babble that goes on in this town," McClellan said. "This is part of the parlor game."