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Bush Considers Cabinet Reshuffle
| quote: | President to Consider Changes for New Term
High-Profile Departures Are Rumored
By Jim VandeHei and Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writers
President Bush said yesterday that he will spend the weekend considering changes in his Cabinet for his second term, feeding speculation inside and outside the White House over shake-ups in key agencies in coming weeks.
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The most intense speculation centers on Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, whose rumored retirement would reconfigure the war team and perhaps lead to a broader reshuffling of Bush's national security team. Powell, however, has told friends he might stay for a few months or well into next year.
Tom Ridge, the secretary of homeland security, has told his friends he is likely to depart at the beginning of next year, people who know him said.
The domestic agencies might see more major changes, administration officials said. While a few Cabinet heads, including Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson, are rethinking retirement plans in the wake of the GOP's triumph in Tuesday's election, several departures are considered highly likely in the weeks and months ahead. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft tops this list. He wants to leave for health and personal reasons , and the White House would like to replace him, a person who recently spoke with Ashcroft said.
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Powell and his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, have long been expected to leave the administration when Bush's first term ends. Powell is highly popular among the career diplomats at the State Department and publicly has remained coy about his plans, saying he "serves at the pleasure of the president."
But associates and friends say he has often expressed frustration with his limited influence in foreign policy under Bush and a desire to step down after four years on the job. Armitage, Powell's closest friend, has told associates he will stay at the State Department as long as Powell does and not one day more.
The leading candidate to replace Powell appears to be U.N. Ambassador John C. Danforth, a former senator and an ordained minister popular with the religious conservatives who helped provide Bush's margin of victory. |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...6-2004Nov4.html
It'll be good to see Ashcroft go (hopefully he'll be replaced by someone a bit more moderate) but I'm pretty bummed about Powell going. He was the only true diplomat in that administration and the only one with a modicum of common sense in his approach to foreign policy. Also, the possibility that he's going to be replaced with a conservative Christian minister worries me - a lot.
Thoughts?
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