Is Eight Enough?

Matt Welch | December 3, 2004

Tommy Thompson becomes the eighth Cabinet member to resign.

Comments

|12.3.04 @ 2:25PM|#

So?

|12.3.04 @ 2:55PM|#

Eight would be almost enough, if not for the lamentable phenomena of them being replaced. When I heard that the Secretaries of Agriculture, Education, and Commerce resigned, I was kinda hoping we could leave those jobs open and hope no one noticed.

|12.3.04 @ 3:05PM|#

I'm still not convinced that you wouldn't find one of those new WiMAX connections people are talkin' about, set up to connect to Cheney's home IP address, if you just unscrewed Condoleezza's faceplate.

|12.3.04 @ 3:16PM|#

�We touched the third rail of politics,� he said, referring to the landmark Medicare legislation that passed Congress a little more than a year ago."

I don't think giving away the farm like they did was touching a third rail. Cutting something, *that's* the third rail.

And don't worry, the next Republican administration will recycle all these people, they'll be back.

|12.3.04 @ 4:38PM|#

The third rail, eh?

I thought the charge politicians got from giving away my money was from touching something else altogether.

|12.3.04 @ 6:40PM|#

"Tommy Thompson becomes the eighth Cabinet member to resign."

Keep 'em comin'.

James Anderson Merritt|12.3.04 @ 7:10PM|#

When Tommy Thompson said that it was time for him and his family to move on, he meant, of course, that he had to "move on" that uppity brother of his, Ed Thompson, and shut him down before he made any more progress for the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin -- like getting elected to that Senate seat Tommy mentioned, or some other office more significant than town Mayor.

Ed Thompson ran a hell of a campaign for Governor and remains an icon of third-party politics in Wisconsin. As long as Tommy was in DC, it was Ed's turn to play. Now, let's see what happens.

|12.4.04 @ 2:23AM|#

The Boy from Elroy will probably take some gladhanding job fronting an insurance company for a few years, or with some DC-based "consulting" organization, drawing a salary many times that of his former gigs as state assembly-hack, WI Guv, and HHS chief. It will probably bore him stiff, and he will don his electoral armor once more. The WI Reps increased their state legislative majorities in 2004, and the current Dem Gov is an old foe of Tommy's, having served as state AG during Thompson's long reign, working at cross-purposes to him. Ed T's 11% showing in 2002 made Jim Doyle only a plurality winner. TT probably figures he could beat him with one malapropism tied behind his back. He might want to take on millionaire ex-grocery-store mogul & Milwaukee Bucks owner (& "lifelong batchelor") Herb Kohl for the Senate, if he's caught Potomac Fever.

"I love politics and I will be involved as a candidate or a strong supporter in the future," Thompson said. "I'm not going to say no to anything."

http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=28019

Kevin

|12.4.04 @ 2:08PM|#

Speaking as somebody who grew up in WI, I'd just like to say that I was thrilled when Thompson joined the Bush administration: It meant he was no longer in Madison calling the shots, and was instead a Cabinet Secretary taking orders from somebody else while running a comparatively unimportant department.

If he wants to run for Senate I say great: Tommy can do less damage is he's 1 vote out of 100 instead of the guy calling the shots.