Cabinet changes

It seems that four more department heads will be announcing their departures from President Bush's cabinet. The four Secretaries are: Colin Powell (State), Rod Paige (Education), Ann Veneman (Agriculture), and Spencer Abraham (Energy). John Ashcroft (Justice) and Don Evans (Commerce) have already submitted their resignations, which means a total of six new faces in the cabinet next year.

In comparison, President Clinton's cabinet had seven changes immediately after Clinton's reelection in 1996. Here's a chart (sort of) for comparison:

CLINTON CABINET



DEPT.	1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

STATE 	WMC-------------------MA----------------

TREAS	LB--------RER-------------------LS------

DEF	LA-----WJP------------WSC---------------

JUSTC	JR--------------------------------------

INTER	BB--------------------------------------

AGRIC	ME----------DG--------------------------

COM	RB---------------MK---WMD------------NM-

LABOR	RBR-------------------AH----------------

HHS	DES-------------------------------------

HUD	HGC-------------------AMC---------------

TRANS	FFP-------------------RS----------------

ENRGY	HRO-------------------FFP--BR-----------

ED	RWR-------------------------------------

VA	JB-------------------------TDW----------





BUSH CABINET



DEPT.	2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

STATE 	CLP------------------CR--

TREAS	PHO-------JS-------------

DEF	DHR----------------------

JUSTC	JA-------------------AG--

INTER	GAN----------------------

AGRIC	AMV------------------XX--

COM	DLE------------------XX--

LABOR	ELC----------------------

HHS	TGT----------------------

HUD	MRM---------AJ-----------

TRANS	NYM----------------------

ENRGY	SA-------------------XX--

ED	RRP------------------XX--

VA	AP-----------------------

HS		  TR-------------

More complete information on the cabinets can be found here. It is important to note that this list includes only heads of executive branch departments, and not other cabinet-level officials. The White House considers six other officials to be cabinet-rank: the VP, the President's chief of staff, the USTR, the drug czar, and the heads of the OMB and EPA.

Of these, I am not aware of any announced changes, although concerns about Cheney's health have sparked speculation that he might retire. (If he does, I know who I want to replace him.)

How many more changes are in store? The CIA just got a new boss in September, but Bill Mueller has been head of FBI since 2001, so a change is not out of the question. Other important members of the president's foreign policy team are departing as well.

Anyway, I don't know that there is a point to this post. I just think the turnover is interesting. If any of my imaginary readers would like to speculate about who else might leave, or who might get a new job as a cabinet secretary, leave a comment.

--VANYA DAVIDOVICH

UPDATE: Sorry those "charts" are ugly. I can't seem to make regular html tables work in blogspot for some reason. Suggestions?