Powell and Three Others to Leave Cabinet
9 minutes ago White House - AP
By GEORGE GEDDA and DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and three other Cabinet members submitted their resignations, a senior administration official said Monday, as the shake-up of President Bush (news - web sites)'s second-term team escalated.
Besides Powell, who had argued Bush's case for ousting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) before a skeptical U.N. Security Council in February 2003, others whose resignations were confirmed Monday included Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news - web sites).
The departures of Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans had been announced last week. The resignations revealed Monday bring to six — out of 15 — the number of Cabinet members to leave so far.
Bush already has chosen White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to succeed Ashcroft.
Powell, who long has been rumored planning only a single term with Bush, told his aides that he intends to leave once Bush settles on a successor, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The White House was preparing an announcement. According to one official, Powell expects that his departure date will be sometime in January. It was not immediately clear whether he would leave before Bush's second inauguration, on Jan 20.
Most of the speculation on a successor has centered on U.N. Ambassador John Danforth, a Republican and former U.S. senator from Missouri, and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites).
Abraham, a former senator from Michigan, joined the administration after he lost a bid for re-election, becoming the nation's 10th energy secretary. If he stays at the post until the end of this term, as is planned, he would become the longest-serving secretary at the department.
Sources said that Abraham intends to stay in Washington, where he plans to work in private law practice. Abraham struggled in attempt to get Congress to endorse the Bush administration's broad energy agenda, but was unable to convince Congress to enact energy legislation.
Abraham, on another front, worked aggressively to expand the government's efforts safeguarding nuclear materials and convinced the White House to put more money into nuclear nonproliferation efforts. He also pushed aggressively to expand research into hydrogen-fuel vehicles.
The leading candidate to replace Paige is Margaret Spellings, Bush's domestic policy adviser who helped shape his school agenda when he was the Texas governor.
Paige, 71, the nation's seventh education secretary, is the first black person to serve in the job. He grew up in segregated Mississippi and built a career on a belief that education equalizes opportunity, moving from college dean and school superintendent to education chief.
The daughter of a California peach grower, Veneman, 55, was the nation's first woman agriculture secretary. Speculation on a potential replacement has centered on Chuck Conner, White House farm adviser, Democratic Rep. Charles Stenholm (news, bio, voting record) of Texas, who lost his seat in the Nov. 2 elections, Allen Johnson, the chief U.S. negotiator on agricultural issues and Bill Hawks, undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs.
Powell has had a controversial tenure in the secretary of state's job, reportedly differing on some key issues at various junctures with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. Powell, however, has generally had good relations with his counterparts around the world, although his image was strained by the U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites).
Powell, a former chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff under the first President Bush, led the current administration offensive at the United Nations (news - web sites) for a military attack to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, arguing a weapons-of-mass-destruction threat that the administration could never buttress.
"It's been a joy to work with Colin Powell," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said. He praised Powell as "a unique figure" who had made the transition "from being a great soldier to being a great statesman and diplomat."
Powell, who submitted his resignation letter to Bush last Friday, was scheduled to meet later Monday with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and was to attend a meeting of Asian officials in Chile Wednesday and a multinational conference on Iraq next week.
He told some two dozen staff members of his projected departure at the start of the day.
For many months, Powell had been viewed as a one-term secretary of state but he has always been vague about his intentions. He had said repeatedly in recent weeks that he serves at "the pleasure of the president."
Powell's role in shaping foreign policy was one of promoting moderation and traditional diplomatic alliances with friendly nations. His influence was measured, though, since most of Bush's other senior advisers generally took a harder line and they often prevailed.
Earlier, after the 9-11 attacks, Powell helped fashion a fragile coalition of countries for the war against terrorism, careful to request all the help a country could give without pushing any country beyond its limits. Similarly, when leaders decided to end or shorten their troops' duty in postwar Iraq the State Department avoided any harsh reaction, saying simply that it was up to each country to make up its mind.
Iraq has dominated Powell's attention during his nearly four years as secretary of state. |
