Rice to get Dept of State
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice is President Bush's choice to succeed Secretary of State Colin Powell, two senior administration officials tell CNN.
Rice's nomination could be announced as early as Tuesday.
It would be a historic move: Rice, who turned 50 on Sunday, would be the first black woman, and only the second woman ever, chosen as the nation's top diplomat.
As I expected, an ineffectual, symbolic person will be given the job. Much noise will be made about her being the first Black Woman in the post, that she was a failure in her current role will be ignored.
Worse yet, her failures where caused by not taking enough initiative and not being able to get a word in against Cheney and Rumsfeld. As head of the State Department, those two problems will only do more damage.
Stephen Hadley will take over at least for the short term. A little known neocon, Hadley is best known for taking some of the blame for the Tenent - Bush miscommunication about war intelligence cover up.
On Tuesday, two senior administration officials told CNN that Homeland Security Department Secretary Tom Ridge will also leave his Cabinet post, but the White House would not confirm the report.
Brian Roehrkasse, spokesman for the department, said the report was "news to us."
Roehrkasse said Ridge has not made any decisions about his future and at this time there have not been any discussions with the White House.
It looks like Ridge is serious about leaving, but the White House wants him to hold on until they can find another sucker for a job who's primary function is to take the blame if there is another terrorist attack.
Jay