Posted on 12/04/2004 11:39:17 AM PST by ApesForEvolution
WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) expressed no alarm Saturday about a warning from his outgoing top health official that the U.S. food supply is vulnerable to terror attacks but would not deny the assessment and assert that the nation's food is safe.
Reuters Photo
Thompson Resigns From Cabinet Post (AP Video)
Bush was questioned, after an Oval Office meeting with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, about comments by Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Secretary Tommy Thompson about the vulnerability of the U.S. food supply. Thompson spoke Friday as he announced his coming departure from the Bush administration.
"We're a large country with all kinds of avenues where somebody can inflict harm," Bush said. "We're doing everything we can to protect the American people. There's a lot of work to be done."
Thompson had said he worries "every single night" about a possible terror attack on the food supply, and despite dramatic increases in inspections of food imports, only "a very minute amount" of food is tested at ports and airports.
"For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do," Thompson said. "We are importing a lot of food from the Middle East, and it would be easy to tamper with that."
Thompson was the latest of eight members to quit Bush's 15-member Cabinet as the president moves into a second term.
Bush himself decided that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld would not go, ignoring criticism about Rumsfeld's handling of Iraq (news - web sites) and giving the secretary a strong vote of confidence to remain at the Pentagon (news - web sites). That decision, sealed Monday in an Oval Office meeting with Bush but not announced until Friday, settles one of the last major questions about who in the Cabinet goes and who stays.
Besides the eight members whose departure has been announced, Treasury Secretary John Snow has not received a public endorsement of continued service, even though White House officials have described him as a valuable member of the president's economic team.
Snow, who has been in the job less than two years, declined in an appearance Friday on CNBC to reveal whether he has submitted or offered to submit his resignation.
Rumsfeld's tenure has been marked by unanticipated postwar violence in Iraq and more than 1,250 U.S. deaths, as well as enormous increases in spending on the military after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Despite controversies, the hawkish, sometimes acid-tongued Rumsfeld has kept Bush's confidence.
Rumsfeld also has a long history of influential support from Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) from their days together in the Ford administration in the mid-1970s.
Rumsfeld has a full plate: continuing military operations in Iraq, focused now on securing the country ahead of January elections; the ongoing effort in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and a plan to modernize the military.
Bush believes Rumsfeld is "the right person at this moment in our history in fighting the war on terror to lead our armed forces," a senior administration official said in describing the president's decision.
The secretary's future had been the subject of much speculation, after revelations about abuses at Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run prisons in Iraq. Though Bush steadfastly backed his defense chief — one of the more hawkish members of his administration — Rumsfeld had many detractors in Congress and the military.
It had been widely believed at the Pentagon that Rumsfeld wanted to stay on, at least for a time, in order to oversee the continuing transition in Iraq and shepherd his plan for a fundamental transformation and modernization of the U.S. military.
Rumsfeld, 72, is the oldest person to serve as secretary of defense. He also was the youngest when he ran the Pentagon for President Ford.
Rumsfeld took intense criticism from members of Congress last spring when the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal became public. He told the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites) that he would quit if he thought that would help, but not simply to satisfy the administration's political enemies.
Rumsfeld said he would take the blame for the scandal. After the completion and publication of several in-depth investigations, the pressure for him to resign abated during the summer.
In recent interviews, Rumsfeld had refused to talk about his future, except to say he remained committed to transforming the military to make it more capable of fighting wars of the 21st century.
Many have criticized him for failing to foresee the insurgency that has taken thousands of Iraqi lives and killed hundreds of American troops since Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime was toppled in April 2003.
Rumsfeld has acknowledged that the strength and resilience of the insurgency was underestimated.
It was not clear how long Rumsfeld's top deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, and chief policy adviser, Douglas Feith, would remain. Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said Friday that Feith told his staff he intended to stay for a while.
No, it's been known for a very long time that Thompson didn't want to be there long. That wasn't the position he wanted in the first place, and I don't think he ever liked living away from Wisconsin.
If the repubs in Congress and GWB don't wake up about actually being proactive about the borders, they'll hand her a platform. And they won't be able to defend themselves.
Not that Clinton would EVER fix the border, but she'll say she will to win the White House. People will listen, think she'll do something and vote her in. Then she will do nothing.
It's all about winning the White House for her.
Never trust a Clinton. It's always all about THEM.
Not that Clinton would EVER fix the border, but she'll say she will to win the White House. People will listen, think she'll do something and vote her in. Then she will do nothing.
It's all about winning the White House for her.
Never trust a Clinton. It's always all about THEM
Yes everybody on FR knows about the Clintons. How they find hot button issues(in this case immigration) to either make conservatives voters not vote for the Republican or in their political orgasmic dreams actually get a conservative voter to vote for them.
And then they f*ck you, and laugh all the way to the chicomm bank.(Remember, middle class tax cut, welfare reform(which Clinton vetoed 3 times before signing it), and being tough on China)
JMO, the new motto on FR(especially for those who have immigration as their #1 issue) should be "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me".
JMO, but some on FR live in perpetual malcontency, and will automatically go the candidate(in this case Hillary) who panders to them.
You and me both. On the morning of 9-11 (about four hours into it), when I was frantically channel surfing for news like everyone else, I stumbled across some panel discussion with Thompson and one or two others. I watched long enough to hear him - to my amazement - make the statement, "This is a time for healing." Honest to God, my jaw about dropped. A time for HEALING?? We hadn't even known who had attacked us yet! He may have wanted to heal, but I wanted to kick someone's butt!
NOT sorry to see this man go at all!
Perhaps a focus on what has been done would be settling and at the same time, an understanding that things can't be changed overnight.
IMO, we have been blessed with the very capable "Dubya" as POTUS and none in the realm of achieving his political stature could possibly fill his shoes and outdo what he has achieved for us as a country.
He has a firm grasp of right and wrong, knows what his function is as POTUS, puts our country ahead of politics, understands that to be effective takes a political mindset, and doesn't let the less understanding of what it takes to achieve the goal of what is best for the USA change his mindset.
We have a POTUS that ALL should be thankful for having.
" It almost seemed like he forgot who he was, where he was, and that the whole world was listening."
That's certainly a possibility, but my own suspicions tell me that Thompson was told he was going to resign, and this was his way of striking back. His vengeance was manipulating the press to put W through a ringer on this subject.
I don't know about Tom Ridge, but Tommy Thompson has never been pro-abort!
Thompson is such a dork. Isn't it unusual for one of these people to try to justify their job when they're already gone?
Seems to me these people like to make big splashes with their murder, not poison a few random people. Yes, food tampering would cause fear. So would a few well placed bombs. So would another sniper or, God forbid, 4 or 5 of them. We can't stop everything. I think we have to allocate our resources, and mass casualty attack plots and assassinations should be the top priorities.
Tommy wanted to move to Homeland Security... This apparently was his parting shot when he didn't get it.
Could Tommy keep his mouth shut until he's gone, at least?
I totally, 100% agree...not to mention our very lives and nation hang in the balance before then.
Who in this forum would vote for Hitlery?
Name one.
Thompson is a buffoon--now a cetified one, no less
He was the best, most electable candidate on Nov. 2nd.
I believe he is the 1st Mexican POTUS we've elected and we are paying/going to pay dearly for it...
"For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do," Thompson said. "We are importing a lot of food from the Middle East, and it would be easy to tamper with that."That has got to be one of the stupidest things I've heard a public official say.
"Dear Terrorists: Here is how to get us, you idiots!"
If they haven't already thought of it, now they have it!
I thought Thompson wanted to leave last year and was asked to stay through the election, so where does the "feeling burned" come in. I have to say, even if it is sour grapes for some overlook, you don't announce to the whole dang'd world what you think a major vulnerability is in our security. I'm not sorry to see him go, if this is true; and, if he were running for DOG CATCHER in my area, I'd be first in line to vote against him. Now, if this was a "seed" that was supposed to be planted, ummm, I take it all back.
I stand corrected then!
So what do we do now?
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