Senator Norm Coleman questions Rumsfeld

Atrios reported it but I never could find it. I got the link through AIM. The AP reports that

Sen. Norm Coleman said Thursday that he is "deeply troubled" about whether the Pentagon has done enough to provide armored vehicles to troops in Iraq, and that the buck stops with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"I'm deeply troubled by what's happening with the Defense Department," Coleman, R-Minn., said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. "I have concerns about Rumsfeld's leadership."

The company providing the vehicles says it could make more of the armored vehicles, contradicting Rumsfeld's recent assertion that the Pentagon was acquiring the vehicles as quickly as possible.

Coleman's comments came a day after the state's other senator, Democrat Mark Dayton, wrote to President Bush asking him to investigate the matter. Dayton called on Bush to ask for the resignations of anyone found responsible for failing to supply the vehicles.

Coleman said he wasn't calling for Rumsfeld to resign.

"However, I am at the stage of saying we've got to get better answers, and I'm troubled by what I've seen," he said. "The questions have been raised and not answered to my satisfaction. Count me among those who are deeply troubled by this issue.

"He's the secretary, and he has to take responsibility. So I put this in his lap. I'm not happy. I'm not at the stage where I think he should step down, but I have very strong reservations."

The final ABC Political Note of the year is ready. Now for the Top 8 Rules for being president the rest of the month:

1. Come to terms with the fact that the President "has not fully explained how he would sharply reduce the deficit while also absorbing the costs of his Social Security program, pursuing new tax cuts and paying for the war in Iraq." (Courtesy jolly Dick Stevenson of the New York Times — who is no supply sider.)

2. Come to the realization that — with the election over — Republicans are going to be increasingly critical of the war in Iraq and Secretary Rumsfeld, and figure out what to do about that.

3. Solve the DC baseball crisis.

4. Get the House to stop talking on background about queuing up tax reform before Social Security reform.

5. Find an intelligence czar and a secretary of Homeland Security, after reading this sentence from the New York Times' latest Kerik story: "White House officials have said they relied in part on the assumption that Mr. Kerik had already run a gantlet of city background checks before becoming police commissioner," and remembering the classic "Odd Couple" line.

6. Do the regression analysis to determine how many more vigorous bike rides it will take to be able to go back to desserts from vegetables.

7. Figure out what to think of Secretary Snow's progressivity remarks in a Los Angeles Times interview touching on tax reform.

8. Convince Andy Card and Karen Hughes to allow the dream of going to Mars back in the State of the Union speech again.
[...]
On Sunday, "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" features not only the unveiling of Time magazine's Person of the Year, but also a debate on Social Security with the New York Times' Paul Krugman and Americans for Tax Reform's Grover Norquist. In addition, Richard Perle joins ABC News' Martha Raddatz, Fareed Zakaria, and George Will to talk foreign policy and Iraq.
Departing homeland security chief Tom Ridge has floated Los Angeles police chief William Bratton as a successor.

NBC First Read has not been released today. Relax, I'll get to it when it comes.