And here it is - after I pronounced the patient dead, he lives (for now)!! ;D
Bush picks Rice to succeed Powell
Tuesday, November 16, 2004 Posted: 12:38 PM EST (1738 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush announced Tuesday that he nominated national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to succeed Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"During the last four years I have relied on her counsel, benefited from her great experience and appreciated her sound and steady judgment. Now I'm honored that she's agreed to serve in my Cabinet," Bush said in a ceremony in the White House Roosevelt room.
If confirmed, 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. (Rice nomination would make history)
A modern-day renaissance woman who traded the stately halls of Stanford University for the political swirl of Washington, Rice became one of Bush's most trusted wartime advisers. (Hopes, fears for Rice appointment)
The secretary of state is fourth in line to succeed the president.
As part of the shake-up, Powell's longtime friend, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, submitted his letter of resignation Monday, his office told CNN Tuesday.
Rice's nomination is among a host of personnel changes in the Bush administration.
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, a 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.
Powell's decision came in a resignation letter to Bush dated last Friday.
Powell is the most prominent of four Cabinet officials whose resignations were announced Monday by the White House.
The others were Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.
"Now that the election is over," the letter reads, "the time has come for me to step down as secretary of state and return to private life. I, therefore, resign as the 65th secretary of state, effective at your pleasure."
Powell told reporters Monday that he "will always treasure the four years that I have spent with President Bush and with the wonderful men and women of the Department of State."
"I think we've accomplished a great deal."
Should Rice's nomination be approved, her top deputy, Stephen Hadley, will be promoted to national security adviser, the senior administration officials said.
The moves drew initial negative reaction from a former secretary of state who served Bush's father.
"I do not believe that you should have in the secretary of state someone who has spent their last four years in the White House next to the president," Lawrence Eagleburger told CNN's "Paula Zahn Now." "I do believe you need tension between the State Department, the Defense Department and the National Security Council.
"If the rumors prove correct and her deputy becomes national security adviser, everybody is going to speak the same language," he said. "Whatever influence, for instance, Colin Powell had is going to be much less under these new circumstances."
Powell, after announcing his resignation, was praised Monday as a "great statesman" and a "voice of moderation." (Powell praised)
One of Powell's best-known moments as secretary of state was his speech last year to the U.N. Security Council in which he made a case for invading Iraq.
He said that Saddam Hussein was still developing weapons of mass destruction despite years of U.N. disarmament demands. Those claims about Iraq weaponry were never borne out.
Powell: 'Business as usual' for now
Powell said Bush accepted the resignation Friday and added: "It has always been my intention that I would serve one term."
But a senior State Department official characterized Powell's departure this way: "He was not asked to stay."
For months Powell said he served at the pleasure of the president, suggesting he might stay if asked.
"That didn't happen," the senior official said. But the official also said Powell "never asked to stay and was never asked to leave."
Powell said he expects "to act fully as secretary of state until the day that I do leave. I expect that will be a number of weeks or a month or two as my replacement goes through the confirmation process."
Meanwhile, it will be business as usual, he said. "I fully intend for the department to work as hard as it has in recent years to push forward the president's foreign policy agenda."
He said he did not know what he would do after leaving the department.
Powell was scheduled to travel to Egypt next week for a conference on Iraq.
CNN's John King, Andrea Koppel, Suzanne Malveaux and Elise Labott contributed to this report.