Bush Administratioin

[Otter]

Does anybody know a good article or insight into what the rational is behind so many members of Bush's Administration retiring thier posts?

I can't seem to find any info addressing this topic and I need some input for a topic being discussed at work where "because he's an idiot" won't cut the mustard.

Thanks for any help.

[Boozer]

Not that this is any help, but I don't think it is at all unusual for Secretaries to leave after one term. It does seem that Bush is experiencing higher attrition than Clinton, but I'm not sure.

[MadProphetMargin]

Does anybody know a good article or insight into what the rational is behind so many members of Bush's Administration retiring thier posts?


My guess is that, seeing as how Bush cannot be re-elected again, he is eliminating people he had on board for PR purposes, and installing people that agree with his agenda..

Think about it...Ashcroft was mostly there to appeal to the religious zealots. He is now being replaced (pending approval) by Gonzalez, who has an even worse agenda/track record than Ashcroft. Gonzalez may have been the architect of Gitmo, and the lead proponent for torture as a tool of state, but at least he doesn't do weird shit where the press can see him (such as anointing himself with Crisco, or covering up classical statues, for a couple of examples).

Powell? Hell, we ALL knew HE was toast. He kept grousing when he was told to lie. Can't have dissent in the cabinet, you know. The president needs people who will say "yes, sir!" to everything he mentions...anything else would be un-American. Everyone knows advisors are there to agree, not to examine ideas for possible snags, after all.

Ridge, of course, made the error of contradicting Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft during one of their "non-confirmed but reliable" panic-fests. So, he's gone, too...to be replaced by the NYC police chief, of all people.

I just can't wait to see who the secretary of education will be.

[alpha_omega]

Conspiracy?

[alpha_omega]

Not that this is any help, but I don't think it is at all unusual for Secretaries to leave after one term. It does seem that Bush is experiencing higher attrition than Clinton, but I'm not sure.

Doesn't look highly unusual.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0101275.html

[MadProphetMargin]

Conspiracy?


Naw. Just a president in his 2d term.

[DenverChief]

HHS Thompson?

[Fairplay]

Not that this is any help, but I don't think it is at all unusual for Secretaries to leave after one term.





I agree. This is not uncommon, happens in every administration particularly two term presidents.

[Boozer]

HHS Thompson?

Hunter S. Thompson?

[patteeu]

Sorry, I can't help you with an article or any other kind of expert rationale, but you've got to think that being a cabinet secretary is pretty hard work for relatively low pay. It's very rare for someone to ride out the full 8 years of a two term president. The older guys want to get out and retire after capping off their public service careers. The younger guys want to get out and make some real money. Many of them (e.g. Ashcroft, Ridge, Powell) have had particularly grueling experiences since we've been at war and have had plenty of domestic "dissenters" second guessing everything they do.

According to the site Alpha_Omega linked us to, it is pretty uncommon for a cabinet secretary to last for a full 8 year stretch. Here are how many full-termers there were in the last 3 two term Presidential administrations:

Clinton had 4 out of 14 - (Interior Secretary Babbit, Attorney General Reno, HHS Secretary Shalala, and Education Secretary Riley)

Reagan had 1 out of 13 - (HUD Secretary Pierce)

Eisenhower had 2 out of 10 - (Agricultural Secretary Benson and Postmaster General Summerfield)

[Otter]

Thanks for the replies. Especially Prophet and patteeu.

[Raiderhader]

My guess is that, seeing as how Bush cannot be re-elected again, he is eliminating people he had on board for PR purposes, and installing people that agree with his agenda..

Think about it...Ashcroft was mostly there to appeal to the religious zealots. He is now being replaced (pending approval) by Gonzalez, who has an even worse agenda/track record than Ashcroft. Gonzalez may have been the architect of Gitmo, and the lead proponent for torture as a tool of state, but at least he doesn't do weird shit where the press can see him (such as anointing himself with Crisco, or covering up classical statues, for a couple of examples).

Powell? Hell, we ALL knew HE was toast. He kept grousing when he was told to lie. Can't have dissent in the cabinet, you know. The president needs people who will say "yes, sir!" to everything he mentions...anything else would be un-American. Everyone knows advisors are there to agree, not to examine ideas for possible snags, after all.

Ridge, of course, made the error of contradicting Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft during one of their "non-confirmed but reliable" panic-fests. So, he's gone, too...to be replaced by the NYC police chief, of all people.

I just can't wait to see who the secretary of education will be.


Speculate much?

[tiptap]

Cabinet level government has been ineffective to a Pres. agenda since Washington. Increasingly the President has looked to special commitees to address difficult probelems represented by the Energy Committee chaired by VP last term. What we are seeing is the attempt to make the cabinet relative again by assuring all selections are on message. This will be effective in getting some things done but it has the danger of selective hearing of solutions, opinions and options.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2110032

[patteeu]

Cabinet level government has been ineffective to a Pres. agenda since Washington. Increasingly the President has looked to special commitees to address difficult probelems represented by the Energy Committee chaired by VP last term. What we are seeing is the attempt to make the cabinet relative again by assuring all selections are on message. This will be effective in getting some things done ...

Interesting perspective, tiptap. :thumb:

...but it has the danger of selective hearing of solutions, opinions and options.

As does the consolidation of all intelligence under one czar as the disproportionately democrat-backed intelligence reform bill would do.

[MadProphetMargin]

Speculate much?

Perhaps you should re-read the first phrase of the first sentence of my post.

Just saying.

[Michael Michigan]

Hunter S. Thompson?


http://sports.espn.go.com/i/page2/logos/Hey_rube2.gif

[Michael Michigan]

http://sports.espn.go.com/i/page2/logos/Hey_rube2.gif

The pain of losing
By Hunter S. Thompson
Page 2

"The Summer is over
the harvest is in,
and we are not saved."
-- Jeremiah 8:20

Well, the election is over now, and I was pitifully wrong on my public prediction about the outcome. George W. Bush won handily; and my friend, John Kerry, lost by three percentage points -- which was every bit as big in a vicious presidential election as it was on the football field last night when the low-riding Indianapolis Colts kicked a last-second field goal to beat Minnesota 31-28.


That field goal was just as good for the Colts as if they'd won by three touchdowns. Three points is huge in a football game that goes down to the last snap of the ball on the last play of the game.

Unfortunately, I bet the Colts heavily to win by seven points -- and they only won by three -- so I was wrong again, and I paid a terrible price. First the presidency, then the point-spread on Monday night. Indeed. Gambling was not a happy experience for me last week.

But so what? I lost, but I am not a Loser. I have long understood that losing always comes with the territory when you wander into the gambling business, just as getting crippled for life is an acceptable risk in the linebacker business. They both are extremely violent sports, and pain is part of the bargain. Buy the ticket, take the ride. Mahalo.

Right after the Colts finally won last night, I called team owner Jim Irsay to congratulate him on his fine victory, even though he failed to make the spread.

"That was too close for comfort," I told him. "What's wrong with that kick-off coverage? It cost us 10 points last night; and if Randy Moss had been playing, forget about the Super Bowl."

Which is true. No team with the worst pass defense in the NFL has ever even been to a Super Bowl, much less win the game. That is a basic truth of Quantum Science in America ... And here is how it works in football situations.

The Indianapolis Colts are giving up almost 26 points a game so far, and that leakage is not likely to change a hell of a lot between now and Groundhog Day -- which indicates, by quantum extrapolation, that the Colts are a mathematical certainty not to go to the Super Bowl this year. They are doomed, because their defensive backfield leaks like a cheap rowboat -- especially against a big, mobile quarterback like the Vikes' Daunte Culpepper, who is bigger than any of the Colts' linebackers.

That is usually fatal in the NFL, where 300-pound people with three-percent body fat routinely run a 40-yard dash in less than five seconds. It's like having a vicious bull elephant that can run 40 miles an hour.

And so much for football wisdom, eh? Let's get back to the presidential election, which also caused enormous pain and grief to millions of people.

I am no stranger to the anguish of losing a presidential campaign, and this very narrow loss with John Kerry is no exception. It hurt, as always, but it didn't hurt as much as that horrible beating we took with George McGovern in 1972. That was by 22 points, the worst defeat in any presidential campaign since George Washington ran for a second term in 1787.

And the winner that year was a conquering hero named Richard Nixon, who got whacked out of office two years later because he was a crook. We had a very angry Democratic majority in the Senate that year, which is not the case now.

No. Today, the Panzer-like Bush machine controls all three branches of our federal government, the first time that has happened since Calvin Coolidge was in the White House. And that makes it just about impossible to mount any kind of Congressional investigation of a firmly-entrenched president like George Bush.

The time has come to get deeply into Football.


It is the only thing we have left that ain't fixed. And more on that next week.