Posted on 11/16/2004 10:23:38 AM PST by West Coast Conservative
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has resigned as expected a day after his boss and close friend, Colin Powell, announced he was stepping down, a State Department official said on Tuesday.
Armitage, a barrel-chested former Navy officer who closely managed the day-to-day operations of the State Department's worldwide bureaucracy, tendered his resignation to Powell on Monday, the official said.
"He came in with the secretary and is leaving with him," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
Armitage was respected among diplomats and lawmakers for his candor. He was always expected to leave at the same time as Powell because of his fierce loyalty to him.
The top U.S. diplomat announced his own resignation on Monday and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice is set to be named to replace him.
"I don't think she has decided on her deputy yet," the official said.
With moderates Powell and Armitage leaving and President Bush poised to elevate Rice, a close confidante who often sided with the administration's hawks, U.S. diplomacy may become more hard-edged, political analysts say.
This report suggests that Armitage is close to employees of the State Department. If so, then his departure is a good thing but (see next paragraph) at the same time not much good will come of it in the rank and file.
Unfortunately, no one really can clean house there at the levels where some good can be done. It is my understanding that to fire a State Department officer, a panel of his/her "peers" is established, a hearing is held, and a clearing/dismissal finding is made. You can bet that not many are dismissed under such an arrangement.
Time to clean house, Condi.
Glad to see him go, go, go, go...
Armitage was a symbiotic organism to the host organism Powell, and Powell was far too measured, too wishy-washy on Iraq, to conciliatory to old Europe, and too concerned with UN approval to perform his duties as he should have in this age of extensive threat and worldwide war.
Condi is a guns-a-blazin' a**-kicker. She'll clean up the State Department and get it working in America's best interests again.
True. ...but, there maybe a hugh increase in Janitorial Service personnel @ State Department...Could you empty this wastebasket, Janitor (fmr. A$$. section chief of M.E. affairs.). :))
Look at the CIA. Outright firing is not the only way to get people to leave.
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