 | Mr.
Bush announced Rice's nomination Tuesday at a White House ceremony. "The
secretary of state is America's face to the world," the president said. In
Rice, he added, people from other nations will see "the grace, strength and
decency of our country."  If
the Senate confirms her - which is expected - Rice will become only the second
woman to hold the significant foreign policy post and the first black woman.
Long
a close friend to the president, Rice's promotion is seen as a victory for conservatives
who often clashed with Colin Powell on foreign policy. "The one thing she
would have going for her that Secretary Powell didn't have … is that direct
line to the president. There would be no equivocation or confusion about whether
she spoke for the president of the United States," explained Alexis Simendinger,
a reporter who covers the White House. Powell's resignation was announced
along with the departure of three other Cabinet secretaries: Rod Paige of Education,
Ann Veneman of Agriculture and Spencer Abraham of Energy. President Bush accepted
the resignations of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Donald
Evans on Nov. 9. | |
| Political
experts agree that changes like these are not uncommon and often express a second-term
president's desire to reward loyal friends as well as create a more harmonious
and effective executive branch of government. "I think second-term
presidents tend to tighten their control and basically say, 'I know what I'm doing,
I know where I'm going and I want people at the Cabinet departments who are going
to follow my lead,'" Paul Light of the Brookings Institution told NPR.  "Most
of these second-term Cabinet people will be enforcers rather than idea-generators.
That's the tradition and I think you'll see it heightened here," he added.
David
Gergen, who advised Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, told the Washington
Post that the level of turnover is high, but it has less to do with discontent
than with the fatigue of long hours and difficult jobs. Even though more
resignations are expected (staggered to avoid the appearance of a mass exit),
it looks as though President Bush won't follow the lead of Richard Nixon, who
notoriously demanded that all his Cabinet members submit their letters of resignation
prior to the start of his second term in 1973. Nixon also tried to enforce loyalty
by having Henry Kissinger serve as both national security adviser and secretary
of state. | |
| The
Cabinet has been a staple of American presidencies since George Washington held
the first recorded meeting in 1791. According to Article II, Section 2 of the
Constitution, the purpose of the Cabinet is to advise the president.  The
president "may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer
in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties
of their respective offices."
By law, the Cabinet includes the vice
president and the heads of 15 executive departments: Agriculture, Commerce, Defense,
Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban
Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs,
and the attorney general -- the head of the Justice Department. President
Bush also bestowed Cabinet-level rank on the heads of the Environmental Protection
Agency, Office of Management and Budget, and National Drug Control Policy, and
the U.S. trade representative.  The
secretaries are appointed by the president but must be confirmed by the Senate
with a simple majority vote -- 51. Once confirmed, they report to the president,
who is the only person who can fire a Cabinet secretary.
However, the power
of Cabinet secretaries is declining, according to a panel of experts who study
government decision-making at the Brookings Institution. Decision-making has become
more centralized due to the complexity of the modern world. The experts
also remarked that it is important to distinguish between the inner Cabinet --
State, Defense, Treasury and Justice -- and the outer Cabinet of less critical
departments. Agriculture is a key part of U.S. industry, experts agreed, but to
have the Agriculture secretary at all important meetings is something of an anachronism.
--
Compiled by Annie Schleicher, Online NewsHour
| |
American schools and financial aid should be only for legal citizens of the United States. There should be no exceptions to this.
