Buh-Bye to:

• Powell, Colin :: Secretary of State
  
• Abraham, Spencer :: Energy Secretary
  
• Veneman, Ann :: Agriculture Secretary
  
• Ashcroft, John :: Attorney General
  
• Evans, Donald :: Commerce Secretary
  
• Paige, Rod :: Education Secretary
  

Showing a rock-bottom level of confidence in President George W. Bush’s leadership abilities, Republicans were quick to point out his exceptional ability to surround himself with ‘good people’.

Okay. Just for the moment let’s suppose that President Bush did have some sort of skill elevated beyond those of his predecessors in choosing his administration and other high level officials. We will also assume for the sake of this discussion that the people he ultimately chose actually are ‘good people’ (We'll save that discussion for another day).

Accepting these assumptions, could we then rest assured that the world’s only superpower and uberdemocracy is in good hands as a result of Bush’s uncanny talent?

Perhaps… if only these ‘good people’ had stuck around long enough to give us the assurance we need.

Amazingly, 92 (Yes, Ninety-Two) high-level resignations and dismissals have taken place since this administration first established its initial set of ‘good people’. In addition to the half-dozen mentioned above, we've seen exits from such top level officials as White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, Commander of the U.S. Central Command General Tommy Franks, Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Glenn Hubbard, Head Weapons Inspector David Kay, Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill, Pentagon Advisory Board Chairman Richard Perle, SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, CIA Director George Tenet, Army Secretary Thomas White, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, and EPA Chief Christine Todd Whitman. And that's just the beginning.

Why the exodus?

Well, many second-term (sigh) administrations have a significant turnover. However, this exodus has been ongoing throughout Bush's first term as well. Indeed, there seems to be evidence of other reasons for abandoning Bush.

Outrage seems to be the most common answer. Many left to protest the administration’s policies regarding its obsession with Iraq, its disdain for preserving nature, and its habit of playing fast and loose with the facts. Several ex-administration members even wrote (or conspired in) scathing appraisals of the president and his policies. You can read some of them in these NY Times best sellers:

• Former Counterterrorism Coordinator Richard Clarke: “Against All Enemies”

• Former Ambassador and secret envoy to Africa Joseph Wilson: “The Politics of Truth”

• Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill was the focus of “The Price of Loyalty” by Ron Suskind
  

Although outrage over the administration’s environmental policies sparked multiple resignations in the EPA, it seems that many of these people would have been 'disposed' of eventually anyway. This was clearly stated in an internal email to Phil Cooney, Chief of Staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, by Myron Ebell, a director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI):

"The email discusses possible tactics for playing down the report* and getting rid of EPA officials, including its then head, Christine Whitman. 'It seems to me that the folks at the EPA are the obvious fall guys and we would only hope that the fall guy (or gal) should be as high up as possible,' Ebell wrote in the email. 'Perhaps tomorrow we will call for Whitman to be fired,' he added."

* The ‘report’ refers to the administration’s own scientists' evidence of global warming.

Some were embroiled in scandal. Accusations of conflict of interest plagued Richard Perle while Mitch Daniels was the focus of an investigation into insider trading.

Below, I have listed all 92 ex-bush administration members, the most comprehensive reference of its kind as far as I can tell. Click on the name to read an article related to their exit. From these sources you will garner a true understanding of the level of dissatisfaction that top officials had with the administration on everything from the environment, AIDS, and war to Medicaire, 911 and the deficits.

List of resignations and dismissals by top officials in the Bush administration as of June 14, 2004: A Reference for Seekers of Truth

1. Abraham, Spencer :: Energy Secretary
2. Al-Khafaji, Isam :: Iraq Reconstruction council
3. Allbaugh, Joe :: Director of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
4. Ashcroft, John :: Attorney General
5. Beers, Charlotte :: White House PR
6. Beers, Rand :: National Security Council
7. Biondi, Rich :: Deputy to the head of EPA's air enforcement division
8. Boler, Bruce :: EPA Biologist
9. Brown, John H. :: U.S. Diplomat
10. Buckheit, Bruce :: Head of EPA's air enforcement division
11. Buckles, Bradley A. :: ATF chief
12. Caldwell, Leslie :: head of the Justice Department team prosecuting executives of Enron Corp.
13. Calio, Nicholas :: Bush's Chief Liaison to Congress
14. Card, Robert :: Energy Department, Under Secretary
15. Clarke, Richard :: Director of National Security Council/Cyberspace Security
16. Clarke, Victoria :: Defense Department
17. Cook, Beverly :: Energy Department, Assistant Secretary
18. Crouch II, J.D. :: Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy
19. Daniels, Mitch :: White House Budget Director
20. DeGraffenreid, Kenneth :: Pentagon, Intelligence
21. Dilulio, John :: Office of Faith-Based Initialtives
22. Dombeck, Mike :: Forest Service Chief
23. Downing, General Wayne :: Deputy National Security Adviser for Counterterrorism
24. Eskew, Tucker :: White House PR
25. Evans, Donald :: Commerce Secretary
26. Fisher, Linda :: Deputy Administrator, EPA
27. Fisher, Peter :: Treasury Department
28. Fleischer, Ari :: White House Press Secretary
29. Foley, Alan :: Head of the Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation, and Arms Control Center
30. Franks, General Tommy :: U.S. Army Central Command
31. Garner, General Jay :: Head of planning and administering post-war Iraq reconstruction
32. Haas, Richard :: State Department
33. Hannapel, Timothy :: Deputy Special Council
34. Herdman, Richard :: SEC Accountant
35. Hubbard, R. Glenn :: White House Council of Economic Advisors
36. Jordan, Robert W. :: U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia
37. Kaplan, Elaine :: Special Counsel
38. Kay, David :: Head Weapons Inspector
39. Kiesling, John Brady :: U.S. Ambassedor to Greece
40. Korsmo, John :: Chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board
41. Kwiatkowski, Karen :: Department of Defense Near East Bureau
42. Lanier, Richard S. :: White House Cultural Property Advisory Committee
43. Leverett, Flynt :: National Security Council
44. Lindsey, Larry :: White House Senior Economic Adviser
45. Mefford, Larry :: Top FBI Counterterror Official
46. Livingstone, Susan Morrisey :: Secretary of the Navy
47. Mann, Hillary :: National Security Council
48. Marin, Rosario :: U.S. Treasurer
49. Miller, Ben :: National Security Council
50. North, Don :: Iraqi Media Project
51. Novotny, Thomas E. :: Top U.S. official working on an international treaty to reduce cigarette smoking worldwide
52. Oliviera, Lt. John :: Top public affairs officer aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt
53. Olson, Theodore :: Solicitor General
54. O'Neill, John :: FBI
55. O'Neill, Paul :: Secretary of the Treasury
56. Paige, Rod :: Education Secretary
57. Parker, Michael :: Army Corps of Engineers
58. Pavitt, James :: CIA Deputy Director of Operations
59. Perle, Richard :: Pentaagon Advisory Board Chairman
60. Pitt, Harvey :: SEC Chairman
61. Poindexter, John M. :: Defense Department
62. Powell, Colin :: Secretary of State
63. Pritchard, Jack :: State Department
64. Redmond, Paul :: Department of Homeland Security
65. Rehnquist, Janet :: Inspector General of Health and Human Services
66. Reich, Otto :: Latin America Adviser
67. Reynolds III, Mercer :: U.S. ambassador to Switzerland
68. Scalia, Eugene :: Bush's acting solicitor at the Department of Labor
69. Schaeffer, Eric :: EPA Office of Regulatory Enforcement
70. Schmidt, Howard :: White House cybersecurity adviser
71. Scully, Thomas :: Medicare and Medicaid Administrator
72. Shinseki, General Eric :: U.S. Army Chief of Staff
73. Suarez, J.P. :: EPA Chief
74. Sullivan, Martin E. :: White House Cultural Property Advisory Committee
75. Tenet, George :: CIA Director
76. Thacker, Jerry :: Presidential Advisory Commission on HIV and AIDS
77. Thompson, Larry :: Department of Justice
78. Thompson, Tommy :: Secretary Health and Human Services
79. Turki, Abdel Basset :: CPA Human Rights Minister
80. Tutwiler, Margeret :: White House PR
81. Veneman, Ann :: Agriculture Secretary
82. Vikan, Gary :: White House Cultural Property Advisory Committee
83. Ware, Patricia :: Executive Director, Presidential Advisory council on HIV and AIDS
84. Warrick, Tom :: State Department
85. Webster, William :: Public Accounting Oversight Board
86. White, Thomas E. :: U.S. Army Secretary
87. Whitman, Christine :: EPA Chief
88. Wilson, Joseph :: Envoy to Africa
89. Wright, Colonel Ann :: State Department
90. Wright, Mary :: U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia
91. Zakheim, Rabbi Dov :: Pentagon Chief Financial Officer
92. Zinni, General Anthony :: Commander-in-chief of the United States Central Command, Middle East

If you find any errors or omissions with the list, please note them in the comments section of this article.

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