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Bush keeps Card, mulls cabinet changes
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-11-09 11:13

White House chief of staff Andrew Card will remain in the job and is expected to play a key role in shaping President Bush's Cabinet for a second term, the White House said on Monday.

At the urging of President George W. Bush, White House chief of staff Andrew Card (R) will remain in the job and is expected to play a key role in shaping Bush's second-term cabinet, officials said on November 8, 2004. Bush spent the weekend in seclusion at the Camp David presidential retreat considering possible changes in his Cabinet, officials said. Bush and Card are seen before the Republican National Convention in New York, September 2. [Reuters]

Bush has told aides he wants a smooth transition and officials said they expected that any major personnel changes would be made gradually, ensuring a measure of stability as Bush heads into his second and final term.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, two leading administration faces in the Iraq war, were both expected to leave. But officials said they might stay in their posts at least temporarily.

The death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, lying critically ill in a French military hospital, could offer Powell the rare opportunity to jump-start peace talks with Israel and bolster his image after the Iraq war, one official said.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, who last week urged journalists against repeatedly asking if Powell would leave, used undiplomatic language on Monday to dismiss a query about a May report that the top U.S. diplomat was tired.

"That's a pile of crap, and it was a pile of crap," the normally unflappable Boucher told reporters at a televised news conference.

Rumsfeld also brushed aside a question about whether he would remain in the Cabinet.

"I've met with him (Bush) two or three times on totally different subjects since the election, but that's not a subject that's come up," Rumsfeld told reporters. "And needless to say, either one of us would discuss it with the other before discussing it with you."

Rumsfeld said "there's a good deal more to be done" in his quest to reshape the U.S. military.

In another key post, Justice Department sources have said privately for weeks that Attorney General John Ashcroft was not likely to continue in a second term. But officials say he may be having second thoughts after Tuesday's election victory.

Republican sources said Bush is considering prominent Democrats for a few of the top jobs. One possibility is outgoing Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana, they said.

The White House said Bush spent the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat considering possible Cabinet changes with Card and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. Vice President Dick Cheney also took part in the discussions.

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