Jumping off the ship

So I'm sure you all know that Colin Powell has resigned from his secretary of state post, and President Bush's biggest fan, Condoleezza Rice, will replace him.\nWhat you might not know is that, though he didn't plan to stay for four more years, Powell's resignation was welcomed in the halls of the White House. Powell said he would serve "at the pleasure of the president," but the president never asked him to stay, nor did he ask him to leave. They kind of just set him aside and waited for him to fall out on his own.\nThat he is leaving is a shame, because both Israeli and Palestinian officials had nothing but kind words to say about Powell, calling him a voice of moderation and "a very good friend to peace."\nI haven't heard those kinds of words spoken about anyone else in the Oval Office. \nMeanwhile, Powell isn't the only Cabinet member to leave the ship, either by jumping off or being pushed off. The secretaries of agriculture, commerce, energy and education, the latter, Roderick Paige, being famous for calling the National Education Association terrorists for opposing the No Child Left Behind Act.\nAnd he's an IU alumnus. Aren't you proud?\nThe former treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, left under duress in 2002, and Christie Whitman, the former director of the Environmental Protection Agency, followed in 2003. Insider rumors say she left her job because the administration kept her from actually doing her job.\nAri Fleischer, Bush's former press secretary, left in May of 2003, possibly to appease his own conscience about having to get up in front of people and lie on a daily basis. Even the administration attack dog, John Ashcroft, left his post, believing that he's done his job to keep America safe.\nThe above is ironic because all throughout the presidential campaign, Bush, Cheney and Ashcroft kept talking about terrorism, and the week after the election, the alert levels for Washington D.C. and New York banks were lowered. Sound like manipulation to you?\nAnd need I remind you that in a Missouri senate race, Ashcroft ran against a man who died during the campaign, and the voters picked the dead guy?\nThe number of people jumping (or being pushed) off the Bush ship is staggering. The officials say shake-ups after an election are normal. I say this transition is more like a broken Tilt-A-Whirl at a county fair, with bodies flying everywhere.\nHomeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge might be the next to go, but that hasn't been confirmed yet. If he does, I personally am afraid. If Bush can pick the hawkish Condoleezza Rice to be the nation's top foreign envoy, he could possibly pick Jerry Falwell for attorney general and James Dobson of Focus on the Family as secretary of homeland security.\n"Sexual deviants" everywhere would cower in fear.\nWhile we're at it, let's continue shopping for Cabinet members. We could get Kenneth Lay to be the new commerce secretary, and Pete Correll, the CEO of Georgia-Pacific paper company, to be the new EPA director.\nAs facetious as those suggestions are, they might not be far from the truth. Moderates and people with common sense are being forced out of positions to make room for people who will fall in line with Bush administration policies, no questions asked.\nThe lack of free-thinkers in cabinet and advisory positions will do nothing but reinforce the already insular, devoid-of-truth world that Bush lives in.\nWhat good is advice when you purposely picked the adviser to agree with your every move?