Open cabinet reshuffle thread

Mike Allen and William Branigin are reporting in the Washington Post that Colin Powell will resign today as Secretary of State. Three other cabinet secretaries — Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman, and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham — are also expected to resign. Feel free to post your thought here on Powell’s ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

Mike Allen and William Branigin are reporting in the Washington Post that Colin Powell will resign today as Secretary of State. Three other cabinet secretaries -- Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman, and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham -- are also expected to resign. Feel free to post your thought here on Powell's legacy, possible replacement, implications for U.S. foreign policy, and whether there will be any further departues from the foreign policy team. I'm particularly curious about this section in the Allen and Branigin story:

Mike Allen and William Branigin are reporting in the Washington Post that Colin Powell will resign today as Secretary of State. Three other cabinet secretaries — Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman, and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham — are also expected to resign. Feel free to post your thought here on Powell’s legacy, possible replacement, implications for U.S. foreign policy, and whether there will be any further departues from the foreign policy team. I’m particularly curious about this section in the Allen and Branigin story:

The exodus — including the previously announced departure of Ashcroft, who is in charge of several aspects of the fight against terrorism — raises questions about whether Bush will have the continuity that his staff has said he wanted. Bush is launching the most ambitious legislative agenda of any of his years in office, and his aides are constantly cognizant of the possibility of having to respond to a terrorist attack. “That’s doesn’t mean they’re leaving today,” McClellan said of the officials involved in the latest resignations. “They’ll continue to do their job.” The resignation letters carry a variety of dates, indicating that the White House has received a stream of them since the election and has been packaging the announcements.

If this is true, then it means Don Rumsfeld ain’t going anywhere. UPDATE: Rice goes to State and Hadley gets promoted.

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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