For better or for worse, bureaucratic reshuffling is a post-election reality for every administration. There is nothing unusual about this year’s exodus of officials from Bush’s Cabinet, the CIA, the State Department and other levels of government. But some second-term replacements are better than others.
Sen. Arlen Specter
(R-Penn.): BETTER
A shoo-in to head the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen Specter’s appointment hit a bit of a snafu last week after he said in public that the Senate was unlikely to confirm a justice to the Supreme Court that would overturn Roe v. Wade. Oops. Cue the Christian Right. Radicals always save their best venom for the moderates in their own party. And from this side of the aisle, it is kind of fun to watch. Will the pro-life “pray-ins” bury Specter? Only God knows.
Alberto Gonzales: BETTER
Sure, he called some Geneva Convention provisions “quaint,” and he supports the USA PATRIOT Act. But let’s look on the bright side: The man picked by President Bush to fill John Ashcroft’s crazy shoes disagrees with his predecessor on numerous points. For example, Gonzales doesn’t think that dancing is a sin, so we’re already moving in the right direction. Furthermore, he has anti-abortion groups up in arms, à la Arlen Specter. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2001, Gonzales said, “There are no litmus tests for judicial candidates. … My own personal feelings about (abortion) don’t matter. … The question is, what is the law?” Such reasonableness has the president of the American Life League, Judie Brown, foaming at the mouth. In a letter, she wrote, “Why is President Bush betraying the babies?”
Sen. Harry Reid
(D-Nevada): WORSE
With the loss of Sen. Tom Daschle, the Democrats have elected Sen. Harry Reid as their new Senate minority leader. Calling this four-term, red-state donkey a moderate is a significant understatement: He is a pro-life Mormon who often breaks party ranks. For example, he voted for a ban on partial birth abortions. On Tuesday, Reid spoke of uniting the two sides of the Senate and working with the President, not against him. The New York Times describes him as “close to Mr. Bush.” We describe him as a Bush ally. When will the Democrats become a true opposition party? Apparently not for the next four years.
Stephen J. Hadley: WORSE
The new national security adviser, replacing Condi Rice, is probably the last person who should be advising the president on national security matters. The Sept. 11 commission blamed Hadley for the lack of pre-terrorist attack focus on al Qaeda. He has been connected to almost every bit of misinformation coming from the White House, including the lies in the president’s 2003 State of the Union address, the lies leading to the war in Iraq and the lies about an Iraq/al Qaeda connection. Most significantly, he led the planning for postwar Iraq, according to the Washington Post, and we all know how that turned out. I guess we get four more years of not believing a word that the administration is saying about anything.

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