White House Cabinet Changes

President Bush nominated Bernard B. Kerik, the New York police commissioner during the Sept. 11 attacks, to replace Tom Ridge as the head of the Department of Homeland Security.

Washington Post's Dana Milbank will be online to take questions about changes within the Bush cabinet, the White House and politics in general.

The transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

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Dana Milbank:

Will the last one out turn out the lights?

At this very moment Tommy Thompson is announcign his resignation from HHS. Who else is leaving? Is anybody staying?

Let's begin the rank, idle speculation.

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Alexandria, Va.: How many more cabinet secretaries do you think will announce their resignations soon? Do you think Norton, Chao, Rumsfeld, Mineta, or Principi will leave?

Dana Milbank: Perhaps the better question is if Norton, Chao, Mineta and Principi resigned, would anybody notice? Things are run so tightly out of the White House that the minor domestic cabinet agencies are not terribly significant.

Rumsfeld is another story. Many people have expected -- even craved -- his resignation, but this seems only to have strengthened his desire to stay. Rice going to State suggests she was convinced there was no opening at the Pentagon.

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Norfolk, Va.: Mr. Milbank -- Is it possible Kerik is too abrasive for the job? He's a tough, competent guy, but he's far from smooth and politic. So how important is diplomacy to a director of homeland security?

Dana Milbank:
If he's half as good at fighting terrorists as he was at fighting John Kerry, I feel very safe. I watched him do an intro speech for Cheney in New Jersey during the campaign, and he made Cheney sound as amiable as Al Roker.

Your question is a good one. Can he knock heads in the bureaucracy, something DHS probably needs? Or will he merely end up in bureacratic and legislative feuds? Impossible to know just yet. But as a reporter, I favor strong, colorful personalities in high office, and I'm sure Kerik will not disappoint.

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Washington, D.C.: When a Secretary resigns do their proteges generally leave as well? I'm thinking of a few choice people at HHS that many of the 65,000 plus employees would like to see depart. Here's hoping!

Dana Milbank: Mark McClellan is now tracing this question to its computer of origin (just kidding; DOJ is the one doing that).

You may be in luck. It's traditional for a few top officials to enter and depart with their cabinet secretary. That's certainly going to happen at State. Thompson brought some Wisconsin hands and other loyalists with him, so those will likely be gone. On the other hand, the White House has had more say than usual in sub-cabinet appointments, so these people tend to be loyal to the president more than to the cabinet secretaries.

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Bethesda, Md.: When the first resignations took place (those three or four in one day) it was explained in one of these chats that they were within the average number of resignations in any new term. Is it still so?

Dana Milbank:
I think we're now into thorough housecleaning mode. The previous mark for 2nd-term turnover, I'm told, was Nixon in 1972.

But there was surprisingly little cabinet-level turnover during Bush's first term-- so while it may seem like a rush to the door now, it is not an extraordinary number overall.

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Junction City, Calif.: Can we draw any conclusions from these resignations about whether these people are in any way dissatisfied with how the Administration runs things or aprehensive about next term?

Dana Milbank:
I think this argument could only be made in the case of Danforth. After just five months on the job, it's hard to make the case that this was always his plan to leave at this time.

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Harrisonburg, VA.: What do you see behind Bush's visit to Canada? Was this just a warm-up for a bridge-building trip to Europe? Also, can the president ever see or hear the demonstrators?

Dana Milbank:
It was a warm up for the Europe trip this winter, to be sure. My sense at the end of it was that it was less a fence-mending expedition than a trip designed for domestic American consumption. The president made a big display of his desire for cooperation and multilateralism, but he also made it clear -- by sticking to his guns on trade, missile defense, and Iraq -- that the policies that irritated the Canadians and the Europeans in the first place were not going to change.

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Arlington, Va.: What is the likelihood of a Democrat getting appointed to any of these vacant positions? I know that has been discussed by a few columnists and pundits but I just don't see the reasoning behind it for Bush. Can you shed some light on this?

Dana Milbank: Most of the people suggesting Democrats will get a spot are Democrats. Mineta now occupies the Democratic chair, so his departure would open up that possibility. Some, such as Nelson and Stenholm, were serious possibilities at agriculture. But this much is clear: there won't be any Democrats in any sensitive positions in the new term.

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Wayne, Pa.: Given Condi Rice's past expertise on Russia is she likely to resurrect her old misgivings about Putin since she seems to have the president's ear if she's confirmed as SoS?

Dana Milbank:
Dr. Rice was at the president's side when, in Slovenia, Bush looked into Putin's soul and liked what he saw. Since then, Bush, with Rice in the NSC, has shied from direct criticism of Putin. Even with Rice's promotion, it's hard to see this changing short of a Russian takeover of Ukraine.

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College Park, Md.: Dana, I keep hearing that second terms are hard and usually amount to nothing more than a few rose garden ceremonies at the outset. How do you see Bush handling the second term? Specifically, what tactics do you think he will be taking to shake off the second term curse?

Dana Milbank:
Bush is determined to defy history. Overhauling the tax code and Social Security, cutting the deficit in half and spreading peace through the middle east. For a president who built a reputation by exceeding low expectations, it would appear he has set the bar impossibly high.

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New York, N.Y.: Does everyone in the White House press corps take long vacations after elections? Great work by the way.

Dana Milbank:

Not long enough. And thanks.

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Virginia: How is the White House reacting to the Oil for Food scandal?

Dana Milbank:
They're not celebrating in public of course, but this plays very well for them. It tarnishes the U.N. in general and Kofi Annan in particular, and it embarrasses the French. Hard to beat that.

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