Transition of Power

Just for a little historical perspective (‘cuz I’m a history nut, not because I don’t think it’s rats deserting a sinking ship), here are the cabinet officials who left in the start of the last 4 two-term Presidents’ second terms. I don’t know without digging further whether or not they all jumped en masse like today’s purgees seem to have done.


Eisenhower: 2, Humphrey (Treasury), Wilson (Defense)

Nixon: 8, Rogers (State), Laird (Defense), Mitchell (Attys General seem to have been a problem with him for some reason…), Stans (Commerce), Hodgson (Labor), Richardson (HEW), Romney (HUD), Transportation (Volpe)

Reagan: 7, Regan (Treasury), Smith (Atty Gen), Clark (Interior), Donovan (Labor), Heckler (HHS), Hodel (Energy), Bell (Education)

Clinton: 6, Perry (Defense), Kantor (Commerce, but he died), Reich (Labor), Cisneros (HUD), Pena (Transportation), O’Leary (Energy)

Bush II: 6 (so far), Ashcroft (Atty Gen), Powell (State), Evans (Commerce), Veneman (Agriculture), Paige (Education), Abraham (Energy)

This entry was posted in Yo! Listen Up!. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to Transition of Power

  1. Chari says:

    And that’s just the ones that left at this time… how many left prior to the election itself?

  2. Linkmeister says:

    If it weren’t for the fact that the whole American population is on board that ship, I’d be delighted to see it sink.

  3. Cableman says:

    This is the only reference I’ve had the opportunity to look at, but in the article it doesn’t sound like Powell made the choice.

  4. -=e=- says:

    Tom Ridge made an announcement that he was resigning in this term too. (Something about being made a laughing stock with all the bogus Orange alerts and Homeland Security being underfunded or something, I think.)

    And how can we forget Paul O’Neill and Richard Clarke from Season One?

    Just when you thought there couldn’t be a downside to Ashcroft leaving… we have Gonzalez, the man behind Abu Ghraib, taking his place.

    But 51% of this country will think that’s just groovy… unless their arresting officer happen to have a lightstick handy. (Run Forrest… run!!!)

  5. Karl, Where Did Everybody Go?

    As the media is telling us, in a letter released today Secretary of State Colin Powell announced his resignation. The White House also released letters of resignation from Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Educati…

Comments are closed.