CABINET CHANGES
Colin Powell
submitted his resignation to President Bush on Nov. 12; news was announced Nov.
15. He plans to stay on until a successor is confirmed.
Possible successors include National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and John Danforth, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Energy secretary
plans to resign an adminstration official said Nov. 15.
Possible successors include deputy energy secretary Kyle McSlarrow, retiring Democratic Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana, Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute trade group, and U.S. ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza.
Agriculture secretary
Ann Veneman's
resignation was announced on Nov. 15.
Among those mentioned as possible successors are Charles Kruse, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation; farm trade negotiator Allen Johnson of the U.S. Trade Representative's office; White House agriculture advisor Chuck Conner; and Texas Rep. Charles Stenholm, a Democrat who was defeated after 13 terms in the House.
Education secretary
resignation was announced on Nov. 15.
Among the possible successors is Margaret Spellings, President Bush's domestic policy adviser.
Defense secretary
likely will stay on for a year or two to continue
restructuring the U.S. military.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, if speculation holds true, could take Rumsfeld’s place to become the first female defense secretary. But her current and former colleagues say she has shown little interest in the Pentagon job
National security adviser
may stay, though a departure would be left up to her. Friends say she wants to
go home to California.
Possible successors include Stephen Hadley, deputy national security adviser, and Robert Blackwill, Rice’s coordinator for strategic planning.
Treasury secretary
to choose when and whether he wants to leave the post, and analysts expect him
to stay on at least temporarily to push domestic issues such as permanent tax
cuts.
Possible successors include Andrew Card, Bush’s White House chief of staff, and Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.
Secretary of homeland security
is expected to leave after being the first person to fill the post created in
the months following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Possible successors include: Asa Hutchinson, one of Ridge’s undersecretaries; Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who successfully oversaw security at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City; and Thomas Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey who co-chaired the independent Sept. 11 commission.
U.S. trade representative
Robert Zoellick
is expected to leave, but there are no leading candidates to succeed him.
Possible successors include Gary Edson, former deputy assistant to the president for international economic affairs, and Grant Aldonas, undersecretary of commerce for international trade.
Attorney general
who has become a target of criticism by Democrats and civil liberties groups
over the anti-terror policies implemented after Sept. 11, 2001, submitted his
resignation Nov. 2. The news of his resignation became known a week later. He is
expected to remain in office until a successor is named.
Possible successors include Ashcroft’s former deputy, Larry Thompson, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and Bush’s campaign chairman Marc Racicot.
Commerce secretary
resigned Nov. 9 to return home to Texas.
Possible successors include Mercer Reynolds III, who served as finance chairman of Bush’s re-electio