Bush Cabinet Changes Continue

The exodus of President Bush’s cabinet continued with the resignations of Colin Powell, Spencer Abraham, Rod Paige and others.

It was unfortunate that Powell wasn’t listened to as the build-up to war continued and he warned that if we invaded and conquered Iraq, we would own all of Iraq’s problems. His presentation of wrong CIA facts as Gospel-truth to the U.N. Security Council diminished his international stature, but it wasn’t entirely his fault. He believed the information that the CIA presented to him and was shocked when CIA Director Tenet backtracked on the facts at a press conference that Powell watched on TV.

Abraham’s attempts to secure our country’s nuclear technologies were also noteworthy. On his watch, investigations revealed deep problems at the Los Alamos nuclear facility, where computer hard drives disappeared, materials were misplaced and nuclear warhead designs went missing. The latter half of his tenure was marked by attempts to enhance security at American nuclear facilities, and his failure to get an energy policy through Congress. Abraham received his share of blame for the soaring cost of oil and refusing to use the strategic oil reserves to manipulate the price of oil at the pumps.

Paige called the National Education Association a “terrorist group” and then apologized for it. He also got mixed reviews on his performance. The No Child Left Behind Act piled tons of paperwork on local school districts, leading some schools to withdraw from receiving federal funds. Paige was then hit with accusations that his Texas school district under-reported the number of dropouts and manipulated data to make Paige and the Houston school district look good.

As much as half of Bush’s cabinet is expected to leave. Don’t read into it too much as turnover happens quite often between a first and second Presidential term.