There are always lots of resignations and changes between a first and second term, especially if there are very few changes during the first term. I think that only one or two cabinet secretaries changed during President Bush's first term so you would expect a lot of changes now.

I don't seem to remember anything like this during Reagan's or Clinton's presidencies.

Actually, Clinton and Carter had just as many cabinet changes as Bush. Clinton had 7...Carter had more.

Doesn't mean anything...each cabinet member knows they're on a term to term basis.

The only thing unusual is how long the cabinet officers have held on. I can only think of one replacement the entire first term. That was O'Neill at Treasury. I can't think of any president that has gone wire to wire with so much of his team.

Not many cabinet officers get past four years. Nearly all of them are being replaced by people already in the Administration. Bush is unusually loyal to his people and most of them respond in kind.

Half of President Clinton's cabinet left at the end of his first time. More than half of President Reagan's original cabinet had either left or taken different jobs (James Baker and Donald Regan switched jobs at the end of the first term, if you remember) by the time that he started his second term.

More interesting than how many (since it's not much more than any other administration) is who's being chosen to replace (or try to replace in DHS' case) the outgoing guys.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)