Powell Fired by Bush

The Washington Post reports on Colin Powell leaving the Bush Administration. Although he had previousy stated he did not plan on remaining in the second term, it sounds like he was fired:

ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2004, eight days after the president he served was elected to a second term, Secretary of State Colin Powell received a telephone call from the White House at his State Department office. The caller was not President Bush but Chief of Staff Andrew Card, and he got right to the point.

“The president would like to make a change,” Card said, using a time-honored formulation that avoided the words “resign” or “fire.” He noted briskly that there had been some discussion of having Powell remain until after Iraqi elections scheduled for the end of January, but that the president had decided to take care of all Cabinet changes sooner rather than later. Bush wanted Powell’s resignation letter dated two days hence, on Friday, November 12, Card said, although the White House expected him to stay at the State Department until his successor was confirmed by the Senate.

2 Comments

  1. 1
    janet says:

    I wish Colin would just let it all hang out.

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    I fear Colin Powell will remain the good soldier and will not speak out against higher authorities, even when he knows they were wrong, regardless of how he was treated by them.

    We also know that if Powell shouls speak out, it would b elike other insiders such as Richard Clarke and Joe Wilson. He will be demonized by the right wings to try to discredit anything he says. The difference here is that such a campaign might not work against Powell.

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