CABINET RESHUFFLING….CNN reports that four more cabinet members are resigning, including Colin Powell at the State Department. That means that two of the “Big Four” cabinet members are now out (Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft) along with four other lesser cabinet members (Commerce, Energy, Education, and Agriculture).
So far, then, the cabinet shuffle seems fairly normal. After the 1996 election, Bill Clinton replaced his State and Defense secretaries along with five other cabinet members. Unless there are a lot more resignations on the way, Bush’s reshuffle seems about par for the course.
Unsurprisingly, I guess, Condi Rice is said to be the “likely” choice to replace Powell ? although I’ve never understood the Rice fan club that’s taken hold among some conservatives, since she seems to be one of the most signal failures of Bush’s first-term team. After all, her job is coordinating foreign policy, and if there’s anything that pretty clearly didn’t happen over the past four years, it’s been getting everyone to sing out of the same foreign policy hymn book.
Still, loyalty seems to be the name of the game this time around, and Rice is nothing if not loyal. Between her at State and Alberto Gonzales at Justice, the cabinet loyalty quotient has just gone up several notches.
