Posted on 06/23/2006 9:01:08 AM PDT by Maneesh
Transportation Secretary Mineta resigns Friday, June 23, 2006; Posted: 11:49 a.m. EDT (15:49 GMT) Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta is resigning, effective July 17, the White House said Friday. Norman Mineta Transportation Security Administration White House or Create Your Own Manage Alerts | What Is This? WASHINGTON (AP) -- Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, the only Democrat in President Bush's Cabinet, will step down next month. Mineta's resignation is effective July 17, White House press secretary Tony Snow said Friday. Mineta, 74, was plagued with back problems during his tenure as transportation secretary and spent months working from home and the hospital. But he has since recovered, and Snow offered no explanation for why he has decided to leave now. Asked why Mineta resigned, Snow said: "Because he wanted to." "He was not being pushed out," he said. "As a matter of fact, the president and the vice president and others were happy with him. He put in five and half years -- that's enough time." Snow paid tribute to Mineta's long history in public life: his service in the Army, his elections to local positions in California, his 20 years representing California in the U.S. House, and his tours in two Cabinet positions, as Commerce secretary under former President Clinton and now under Bush. Snow credited Mineta with cutting regulations and red tape to liberalize the commercial aviation market, establishing the Transportation Security Administration, helping to shape the highway bill and injecting "sound economic principles" into the nation's passenger rail system.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I think we need a mandatory retirement age for those in the government. Whether its elected office or appointed.
Oh, thank God!
I sincerely wish Mr. Mineta a full recovery from his ailments, and a very enjoyable retirement, far away from anything involving the security of the United States. A mah-jongg club, perhaps ...
I'll say. Oh, you mean real back problems, not a spine-ectomy? Well, Mr. Mineta, for that you have my sympathy but you were still the wrong person for the job, especially when it came to arming the pilots.
Maybe now we can have some long overdue profiling within our transportation system.
He does walk really hunched over...looks his age in person.
His resignation is good news; really has screwed up the aviation (among others) biz.
~GCR~
Yep, time for him to go. Will the TSA and all those bureaucrats added to the public dough go with him since the TSA was his brainchild?
This Putz should have been fired Sept. 12, 2001.
Mineta should have been given his walking papers the day after 9/11. The union jobs program that turned into the Home Land Security mess started with his stupid P.C. aviation rules.
Good Riddance! This job was waaaay over his head!
Hopefully the TSA and Homeland Security will go with him.
Homeland Security is out of control against the citizens, not the terrorist. Bureaucracy will kill this country before islamofacists will.
YES! One more Affirmative Action doofus out the door!
Yeah, but I'm afraid the Prez will hire another PC person just like Mineta. My worst fear - we'll be stuck with another "you can't profile anyone" guy because Prez Bush, on such things, just doesn't get it. Hope his advisors steer him on the right path this time, and get someone tough in there, but I won't hold my breath.
*chuckles*
BYE NORM! Don't let the door hit ya' on the way out!
He's hitting the road.
That is a concern, I do hope that the next guy strongly believes in profiling like the Israeli Airlines does. I am an American originally from India and have never been stopped or checked but have seen old ladies and moms stopped at airports all the time. Poltical correctness will literally kill us and I pray that the next guy is someone like Dick Cheney. A no nonsesne serious hardball guy is what we need.
I'd be more inclined to make them take an "I am stupid" test.
"A no nonsesne serious hardball guy is what we need."
I second that motion!
Maybe now we can start profiling Muzzies!! Mineta has been the main obstacle to the TSA's inability to profile them.
With him gone, perhaps the TSA can start getting back to rational behavior and leave the grannies and 3 year-olds alone.
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