AshtabulaGuy writes “A critical US cabinet officer who impacts librarians every day resigned. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans, responsible for the Census Bureau, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the National Weather Service, and more resigned. His administration prepares and provides tons of information resources to librarians that are used by reference librarians and catalogers alike during the course of their work. Through the NTIA much Internet policy is set and much of the Internet’s future is plotted.
Oh. And Attorney General John Ashcroft resigned too.
Former General Counsel and current Deputy Secretary of Commerce Theodore W. Kassinger will assume control of the US Department of Commerce between the taking effect of the resignation by Evans and the confirmation of a successor. Likewise Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey will assume control of the US Department of Justice in the interim between the Ashcroft resignation taking effect and the confirmation of a successor. It is not yet known who will be nominated as successors.
Statements from the White House:
President Thanks Secretary Ashcroft
President Thanks Secretary Evans“
Ashcroft’s replacement already named…
And the winner is Alberto Gonzales.
I think this choice defines the limits of the President’s willing to reach out to Democrats and us independents. Please see story for details. Plus this Google News search that brings up his role in approving interrogation techniques which bordered on torture and other memos arguing that the President has essentially no limits to his power during a time of war.
Perhaps the President feels that nominating someone with a pro-choice record is reaching out to the “blue states.” Me, I’d rather have someone with more respect for the Constitution’s separation of powers and for human rights.
Re:Ashcroft’s replacement already named…
I was prowling around the house in the middle of the night when I originally thought of putting the piece together. The original piece above was written around 4:30 AM Eastern Standard Time as the news had just come up on the TV and I had to go do something at 5:00 AM EST. When I wrote this morning, nobody had been named yet although a possible successor was expected to be named later in the day.
Alas, I was hoping there would have been an update before this got posted by one of the authors. I have been out and about all over Northeast Ohio today so I have not really been online too much since being up before dawn and writing the story above.
Of course, reading it again now, I am surprised I wrote as well as I did having just woke up, saw the news on TV, and then submitting the story…