Mineta to Quit As Transportation Secretary

ABC News ^ | June 23, 2006 | JENNIFER LOVEN

[Paul Ross]

Mineta to Quit As Transportation Secretary

Norman Mineta, the Only Democrat in President Bush's Cabinet, to Resign As Transportation Secy.

By JENNIFER LOVEN

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - 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.

He offered no other comment about Mineta's departure, which comes weeks after a shake-up in Bush's top staff and Cabinet had appeared complete.

Mineta had only been expected to stay in the post until major highway funding legislation became law. Congress failed to pass a six-year, $300 billion bill to pay for highway and mass transit programs when the last spending plan expired on Sept. 30, 2003. The previous level of spending was continued until the end of May.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures

[Paul Ross]

Norm "Homeland security? What homeland security? Mineta. Running for the tall grass before we could get him impeached....

Michelle Malkin pretty well nails it, "MM-Don't let the door hit you on the way out!"

And: "MM- Finally. But P.C. madness still reigns.

The Curse of Norm Mineta

The Curse of Norm Mineta, cont'd.

Summary overview here:

What's old, underperformin' Norman up to these days? With the continued blessing of George W. Bush, the Dept. of Transportation Secretary is still wasting your money and making us all less safe in the name of political correctness. Using this press release as a take-off point, my latest column takes a closer look at Mineta's embrace of the racial spoils system at DOT.

You may recall that the Bush administration angered and disgusted conservatives by defending DOT racial set-asides four years ago--putting the Republican White House on the same side as the Clintonistas. Since then, the fraud, abuse, and fronting scams have continued under the so-called "disadvantaged business enterprise" scheme that amounts to dollar-driven discrimination.

[Paul Ross]

Now if only Harriet Meiers would finally just "resign" because she wants to...instead of hanging on and aiding and abetting further abominations to the Constitution and principaled government.

[Mark was here]

Mineta was bragging about not stereotyping or profiling people for searches before 911. If not stupid, he is pure evil.

[Al Simmons]

Let me be the first to say..

ABOUT TIME!

[samadams2000]

Can we now remove his silly name from the worst airport in America? (San Jose-Minetta- Illegal Alien-International)

[Rummyfan]

About five years late, but better late than never. I could never understand why the President let this idiot stay on.

[plain talk]

(put on Rush fake lisp access )

Now, people, Bush must replace Mineta with another democrat in order to maintain fairness in his Cabinet fair. Otherwise it would not be fair.

(sarcasm)

[OldFriend]

Not only nasty, but you can't spell either.

[appeal2]

I am so happy to see this idiot leave. Thanks goodness for Josh Bolton and his new broom. Minetti endangered the entire flying public by refusing to allow crews not transport suspicious passenger. He refused to allow TSA to profile passengers and he managed the TSA into a fiscal hole. He was a typical PC Dem with no regard for the results of his actions. He was very effective at searching shoes though. We needed to adopt the Israeli method of passenger screening but this moron could not see the most simple of facts. Good ridance and may he rot with the rest of the Clinton cronies.

[Paul Ross]

Not only nasty, but you can't spell either.

T'sk. You should know.

Principaled = Principled

---Typo.

As for nastiness, you should see what Meiers has actually done.

The time for kid gloves because she is a woman, and the President's friend is over.

She deserves zero credit for conservative nominees appointed, in fact has stood in the way of a number. Her vetting is simply going over the ground again, duplicatively, already done by the Federalist Society...and then taking credit for it.

[NY Attitude]

I agree. That airport is a real Charlie Foxtrot.

[GunsareOK]

And he sandbagged allowing pilots to be armed. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[WarEagle]

What was that old country song? "Thank God and Greyhound You're Gone"? Buh-bye Normie. Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.

Maybe now that you're gone we won't be randomly searching GRANDMOTHERS at airports.

[Paul Ross]

What was that old country song?

THANK GOD AND GREYHOUND
Recorded by Roy Clark
Words and music by Larry Kingston and Ed Nix

__________________________________________________

[C] I've made a small fortune and you [C7] sqandered it [F] all You shamed me till [C] I feel about one inch [G7] tall But I [C] thought I loved you and I [C7] hoped you would [F] change So I gritted my [C] teeth and [G7] didn't com-[C] plain Now you come to me; with a [C7] simple good-[F] bye You tell me you're [C] leavin' but you don't tell me [G7] why Now we're [C] here at the station and you're [C7] getting [F] on And all I can think of [C] ... is ... Thank [G7] God and Greyhound, you're [C] gone.

Thank [F] God and Greyhound, you're gone I didn't know how much longer I could go [G7] on [C] Watchin' you take the respect out of me [F] Watchin' you make a total wreck out of [G7] me That [C] big diesel motor is a-[F] playin my [C] song Thank God and [G7] Greyhound, you're [C] gone.

Thank God and Greyhound, you're gone That load on my mind got lighter when you got on That shiny old bus is a beautiful sight With the black smoke a-rollin' up around the tail light It may sound kinda cruel but I've been silent too long Thank God and Greyhound, you're gone.

TAG: Thank God and Greyhound, you're gone.

[liberte]

Norm-

Goodnight and good luck. You'll need it, dumbass.

[Paul Ross]

Sigh. Totally agreed with that description.

Can you even imagine what that looney tune Mineta would have done if Bush had put him in as Sec. Defense? Imagine for a second if he was in charge of the Marines?

E.g., That poor sad-sack Marine who merely wrote and sang that humorous love song "Hadji Girl" would be in leg-irons at Camp Pendleton even now...facing not just some insane court-martial....but likely hard prison time.

Mineta, and his ilk... is a smuch an enemy of America as those we are fighting. He...and anyone who thinks like him... should have been fired before he was ever hired. W's got "some 'splaining to do...

[Inkie]

Just wait. He's probably writing a book trashing his old boss.