Blunt Says Bush Should've Dumped Rummy Earlier

Rep. Roy Blunt told CNN today that President Bush should have fired Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld before the election.

"I think if the president was going to make that change, it would have been helpful to make it earlier. He's a good friend of mine. I know it's a hard job to be president. You have got a lot of decisions you're trying to make all the time," Blunt told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

"I think it would have been helpful to make this one earlier because all of our candidates then would have been able to say with more certainty and people would have believed with more certainty that we're looking constantly at how we can improve. We're reviewing these policies. We're not stuck in the status quo in any way in Iraq. And that decision is proof of that. Unfortunately we didn't have that to say, but you know it's a tough job," Blunt added.

Blunt said he let his views be known to the White House.

"I've expressed that concern and the irritation that the members would have and I think they expected that. Now you'll have to ask them more than that," Blunt said.