Transition of Power

Posted on November 15, 2004 by Solonor

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)

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5 Responses to Transition of Power

  1. Chari says:
    November 15, 2004 at 2:21 pm

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

  2. Linkmeister says:
    November 15, 2004 at 3:26 pm

    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:
    November 15, 2004 at 6:21 pm

    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:
    November 17, 2004 at 3:16 am

    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. Your Guess Is As Good As Mine says:
    December 12, 2004 at 2:02 pm

    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…

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