Colin Powell leaving, confirmed

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-11-15 09:40am

Its confirmed by CNN

CNN breaking wrote:U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has submitted his resignation, a senior administration official tells CNN. Details soon.

Not unexpected.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2004-11-15 09:47am

hmm... one of the few sane people are leaving? too bad.

BoredShirtless · Post by **BoredShirtless** » 2004-11-15 09:50am

Not good. Now there is even less balance in the Whitehouse. Are there any doves left?

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2004-11-15 09:50am

Yeah, this really isn't good. Powell is one of the few that's not a big war hawk and he's the closest to credible the administration has. This is not good news.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2004-11-15 09:54am

Damn beat me to it. A shame he leaves.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-11-15 10:07am

I remember hearing somthing somewhere that Powell promised his wife that he would only serve one term.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-11-15 10:11am

And in other news, The Shep has been confirmed as the new SecState, and promised to implement his "Nuke Everyone" policy.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-11-15 10:12am

MKSheppard wrote:And in other news, The Shep has been confirmed as the new SecState, and promised to implement his "Nuke Everyone" policy.

I request confirmation, and how will you deal with people who will Nuke Everyone Back?

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-11-15 10:13am

Ace Pace wrote:I request confirmation, and how will you deal with people who will Nuke Everyone Back?

*posts obvious photoshop of coverpage of Washington Times showing The Shep accepting the post*

And I Shall Nuke Them First

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-11-15 10:15am

MKSheppard wrote:
*posts obvious photoshop of coverpage of Washington Times showing The Shep accepting the post*

And I Shall Nuke Them First

So you support pre-empative first strikes on Tibet?

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-11-15 10:16am

Ace Pace wrote:So you support pre-empative first strikes on Tibet?

If by Tibet, you mena those Godless Chinese Communists in Beijing, then
yes, the mighty power of the Atom shall rise above the Forbidden City.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-11-15 10:18am

MKSheppard wrote:
If by Tibet, you mena those Godless Chinese Communists in Beijing, then
yes, the mighty power of the Atom shall rise above the Forbidden City.

And when they operate "Plan 9 from Nuking space"?

dr. what · Post by **dr. what** » 2004-11-15 11:19am

Wow--they're all leaving.....

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... sh_cabinet

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and three other Cabinet members submitted their resignations, a senior administration official said Monday, as the shake-up of President Bush (news - web sites)'s second-term team escalated.

Besides Powell, who had argued Bush's case for ousting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) before a skeptical U.N. Security Council in February 2003, others whose resignations were confirmed Monday included Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news - web sites).

The departures of Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans had been announced last week. The resignations announced Monday bring to six — out of 15 — the number of Cabinet members to decide so far to leave.

Bush already has chosen White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to succeed Ashcroft.

Powell, who long has been rumored planning only a single term with Bush, told his aides that he intends to leave once Bush settles on whom to succeed him, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The White House was preparing an announcement to confirm Powell's resignation. According to one official, Powell expects that his departure date will be sometime in January. It was not immediately clear whether he would leave before Bush's second inauguration, on Jan 20.

Most of the speculation on a successor has centered on U.N. Ambassador John Danforth, a Republican and former U.S. senator from Missouri, and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites).

Powell expects that his departure date will be sometime in January, the officials said. It was not immediately clear whether he would leave before Bush's second inauguration, on Jan 20.

The leading candidate to replace Paige, meanwhile, is Margaret Spellings, Bush's domestic policy adviser who helped shape his school agenda when he was the Texas governor.

Paige, 71, the nation's seventh education secretary, is the first black person to serve in the job. He grew up in segregated Mississippi and built a career on a belief that education equalizes opportunity, moving from college dean and school superintendent to education chief.

Powell has had a controversial tenure in the secretary of state's job, reportedly differing on some key issues at various junctures with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. Powell, however, has generally had good relations with his counterparts around the world, although his image has been strained by the difficult U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites).

Powell, a former chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff under the first President Bush, led the current administration argument at the United Nations (news - web sites) for a military attack to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, arguing a weapons-of-mass-destruction threat that the administration could never buttress.

Powell submitted his letter of resignation to the President on Friday. He will go about his usual schedule and will continue at full speed until a successor is named and in place, a senior administration said.

Powell was scheduled to meet later Monday with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and was to attend a meeting of Asian officials in Chile Wednesday and a multinational conference on Iraq next week.

He told some two dozen staff members of his projected departure at the start of the day.

For many months, Powell had been viewed as a one-term secretary of state but he has always been vague about his intentions. He had said repeatedly in recent weeks that he serves at "the pleasure of the president."

One senior official said that Powell's departure was part of a much broader Cabinet shakeup, details of which should be disclosed soon.

There had been speculation that Powell might elect to stay on until after the Iraqi elections at the end of January, but the senior official made no reference to that possibility.

Powell had indicated, when asked, that he would be willing to remain in his post, but that a decision on that was up to Bush.

Powell's role in shaping foreign policy was one of promoting moderation and traditional diplomatic alliances with friendly nations. His influence was measured, though, since most of Bush's other senior advisers generally took a harder line and they often prevailed.

Earlier, after the 9-11 attacks, Powell helped fashion a fragile coalition of countries for the war against terrorism, careful to request all the help a country could give without pushing any country beyond its limits. Similarly, when leaders decided to end or shorten their troops' duty in postwar Iraq the State Department avoided any harsh reaction, saying simply that it was up to each country to make up its mind.

Iraq has dominated Powell's attention during his nearly four years as secretary of state. Powell will perhaps be best remembered for that U.N. Security Council appearance on Feb. 5, 2003, during which he argued that Saddam must be removed because of its possession of weapons of mass destruction.

There is no evidence that those claims had any foundation. Powell has maintained all along that the use of force of by the American coalition in Iraq was justified.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2004-11-15 11:23am

Well, Abraham is not the least of a suprise. He took the job only after losing his big for State Senator to Stabenow and always considered the Energy Secretary job as a poor consolation prize. He's probably leaving to either retire or to try and restart his career.

Wonder if he's going to try and challenge Levin?

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2004-11-15 11:28am

I'm not surprised, as, IIRC, there has been talk of Powell only serving one term for about a year now. Is there any speculation on who might replace him? Because I have that bad feeling that his replacment will be someone who's just to the right of Rumsfeld.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2004-11-15 11:35am

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:I'm not surprised, as, IIRC, there has been talk of Powell only serving one term for about a year now. Is there any speculation on who might replace him? Because I have that bad feeling that his replacment will be someone who's just to the right of Rumsfeld.

The Article wrote:Most of the speculation on a successor has centered on U.N. Ambassador John Danforth, a Republican and former U.S. senator from Missouri, and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites).

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-11-15 06:43pm

Good riddance. I lost all respect for Powell in the last four years. Being a moderating influence is kinda worthless when you submit weekly whenever told to.