Sen. Orrin Hatch as the next U.S. attorney general? EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt as the new secretary of homeland security?
Not likely. But those scenarios are among many being bandied about after Bush spent the weekend at Camp David plotting strategy for his second term. In a news conference before the retreat, Bush said it was "inevitable" that there would be changes to his Cabinet, but he has told members to be wary of the intense speculation about turnovers.
"I said, 'It's a great Washington sport to be talking about who's going to leave and who their replacements may be, and handicapping, you know, my way of thinking,' " Bush said after his first meeting with his Cabinet since his re-election victory.
Although every prominent member of the administration has been the subject of rumored departures or job switches, most of the reported speculation over potential exits has focused on U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, Treasury Secretary John Snow, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.
The Wall Street Journal listed Hatch as a possible successor to Ashcroft as head of the Justice Department, while lobbyists for industry associations and environmental groups were spreading speculation via e-mail that Leavitt is "actively angling" to replace Ridge as head of Homeland Security.
Colleagues of Leavitt in Washington, however, say he has never expressed any interest in changing Cabinet posts from the head of Environmental Protection Agency, where he logged his one-year anniversary Saturday.
Leavitt briefly served on Ridge's homeland defense advisory committee before his EPA nomination and has the security success of the 2002 Winter Olympics to his credit, but in his first post-election interview, he indicated his commitment to EPA in a new term.
"The election is a validation of our philosophy and agenda," Leavitt told The New York Times on Monday. "We will make more progress in less time while maintaining economic competitiveness for the country. That is my mission."
There is also speculation that the former Utah governor could be the new Interior Secretary if Gale Norton opts for a judicial appointment or a job in the private sector, although there is scant indication that Norton will depart soon. However, one of Norton's department heads from Utah, Bureau of Land Management Director Kathleen Clarke, is expected to leave that post shortly, after a tenure marked by internal investigations over allegations of unethical conduct.
If Hatch makes the move to U.S. attorney general - or he gets an oft-rumored but highly unlikely nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court - Leavitt would be a leading candidate for Utah Gov.-elect Jon Huntsman Jr. to appoint as the state's new U.S. senator.
Hatch has no clear route to a new chairmanship when he leaves the helm of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the end of this year because of term limit rules. He shares a common vision with Ashcroft on a number of issues critical to the Bush administration, such as expanding the powers of the USA Patriot Act and repealing the 2005 sunset of the anti-terrorism law.
But many Senate observers figure Hatch would be more useful to the administration as a senior deal-maker in the Senate rather than in the polarizing position of attorney general, subordinate to the Senate committee he has been leading most of the past six years.
There also is speculation that Hatch may not get his walking papers from the Senate Judiciary Committee in January as anticipated, in the wake of a conservative attack unleashed against incoming chairman Sen. Arlen Specter. Specter aroused the ire of anti-abortion activists for his comment last week that Bush should not pick Supreme Court nominees who want to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.
Conservative columnist Robert Novak wrote Monday that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is considering asking fellow GOP senators to waive the party's self-imposed term-limits to keep Hatch in the chairmanship.
