Abstract

Bush's New Team

The article focuses on United States President George W. Bush's Cabinet officers appointments. Gone soon will be Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had the annoying habit of pointing out that the United States actually needed allies. On the domestic front, Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, whose frustration with the Administration's refusal to fund needed antiterrorism initiatives was always a little too evident, is on the way out. So, too, is Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who never got on board with the Administration's opposition to most forms of stem-cell research and who bluntly acknowledges that he wishes he had been given the authority to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies and to do more to protect the nation's food supply. As Bush announces his replacements, ideology and personal loyalty are winning out at every turn over ideas and the historic notion that a Cabinet ought to be made up of the best and the brightest. Bush should not be allowed to quietly replace America's Cabinet form of government with an echo chamber.