Who will be the first administration official out the door?
 

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Who will be the first administration official out the door?
 

Tommy Thompson. My bet is that Powell is already halfway done with the underground tunnel he's been digging with spoons from the WH cafeteria, but leaving too quickly would be poor form.

OTOH, Thompson could leave tomorrow and few would notice.

Who will be the first administration official out the door?
 

Wolfowitz.

I'm shocked beyond belief that Rummy is still in there. He's gone right after the elections.

Who will be the first administration official out the door?
 

By any standard of performance in the Reality-Based Community, I can't disagree -- Rumsfeld would be gone.

Don't forget, however, that:

(1) Rummy is a principal architect of our current Iraq policy, and much of the rest of our foreign policy, such as it is. GWB, for this reason, together with his general reluctance to discard anyone in the Administration other than those who blurt out uncomfortable truths, is somewhat beholden to him now, as letting him go would admit much that Bush would not want to admit.

(2) With whom would you replace Rumsfeld? His personality has so dominated the landscape that there are few visible and credible candidates standing around.

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Ashcroft. Too easy. If any of you, Slave excepted, ever looked at Fox News.com, you'd know they already quote sources as saying he will resign soon...

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Heard that on CNN this morning as well (they watch fox news also).

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What's with all the hatin'?

Barney?
 

Who will be the first administration official out the door?
 

Rummy hangs on for a little while in the hopes there's something in Iraq that lets him say mission accomplished.

Powell, meanwhile, goes quickly.

I'd guess Ashcroft sticks around until the Rehnquist situation clears up, which for political reasons gives Bush some options on appointments--he can appoint an AG as a sop to the wing of the party that doesn't get the Chief choice. (e.g., Giuliani to placate the nomination of Jones/Gonzales/Luttig/Alito)

Who will be the first administration official out the door?
 

Not that it would happen quickly, but "the Cheney steps down, Condi tapped as Veep" rumour actually makes some sense to me.

Who will be the first administration official out the door?
 

Why on Earth would Cheney want to step down. He's practically running the country. (By which I don't mean to suggest that he tells Bush what to do, but by all accounts he is absolutely essential in deciding what the President gets to hear, which is almost as good.)

Who will be the first administration official out the door?
 

Ashcroft first, Powell second.

Powell is the one who is persona non grata, but by holding the door for Ashcroft first, Bush can say he is reaching out and trying to be a unifier.

Then he gets to kick Powell a couple of times on the way out the door, and probably lets Dick and Condi get in on the fun, too.

I'm expecting Rummy and Wolfie to stay; if they were going to be gone, they'd be out, and I think the Administration actually shares their neocon wet dreams.

Who will be the first administration official out the door?
 

Because (1) contrary to lefty diatribes, Cheney is neither power-hungry nor is he a bad guy, (2) for health and family reasons, it has been bandied about that he wanted to go, and (3) he couldn't leave before the election because he does significantly motivate the base (and I really don't know why).

Who will be the first administration official out the door?
 

Thompson announced over a year ago that he was leaving at the end of the adiministration. His job was to get the Medicare prescription drug bill through and that was it. Tom Scully, who oversaw that whole fiasco, resigned a soon as the bill was signed.

I, of course, have objections to people in the Executive branch pushing for legislation and then not sticking around to implement it.

I will say, though, that as bad as the HIPAA Privacy Rule is, the Rule as amended in August 2002 was infinitely more workable than the final Rule from December 2000. That is a credit to the Bush Administration. Implementation of HIPAA Transactions and Code Sets, though, was and continues to be a nightmare.

The changes to the EMTALA regulations don't seem to be that bad. The IG needs to be appointed. Janet Rehnquist has been gone for over a year and a half now, and though I like Lew Morris, a permanent replacement needs to be named. That branch of DHHS is the money making enterprise, and it needs leadership. NIH funding has been pretty consistent. The final regs for Stark were surprisingly humane. I do have problems with the FDA, but I think those are systemic, not necessarily administrative. One of the first things that Thompson did when he got there was to change HCFA's (Health Care Financing Administration) name to CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services). Aside from the name change, I haven't seen much of a difference in the two entities. Must of cost a hell of a lot, though, to rebrand everything. OCR is wholely and completely underfunded, given its new mandate and that's bad for health care. We're left without guidance on the Privacy Rule, and as a result, there is a lot of confusion. I don't know much about the Indian Health Service, and the CDC has been doing good work.

Who will be the first administration official out the door?
 

How would Condi be received on the Hill if nominated as vp? Straight party-line vote?