WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Colin Powell announced his resignation Monday, ending four years of battles with Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the course of U.S. foreign policy.
Administration officials said Powell, whose departure was announced by the White House along with three other Cabinet resignations, will be replaced by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, one of President Bush’s most trusted confidants.
The announcement will be made as soon as today, administration officials said. She would still face Senate confirmation.
“In recent weeks and months, President Bush and I have talked about foreign policy, and we’ve talked about what to do at the end of the first term,” Powell said Monday. “It has always been my intention that I would serve one term. And after we had had a chance to have good and fulsome discussions on it, we came to the mutual agreement that it would be appropriate for me to leave at this time.”
Powell and Bush met at the White House on Friday, the date on the secretary’s letter of resignation. Details of the meeting could not be learned, but White House officials said the secretary was not asked to stay. A senior State Department official said Powell made no demands of the president and gave no hints that he might stay, an account echoed by White House aides.
Republican officials said choosing Rice reflects Bush’s determination to take personal control of the government in a second term, especially departments and agencies that he felt had undermined him in the first four years.
The White House announced Powell’s departure along with the resignations of three other Cabinet members – Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. Their departures – along with the earlier resignations of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, and the likely departure of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge for private industry – mean that Bush will replace about half of the 15 heads of executive departments for his second term.
Administration officials said more departure announcements are likely, including one from Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, the lone Democrat in the Cabinet.
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