With six cabinet members stepping down in the past week, the Bush administration is facing substantial turnover before its second term, an effect associate professor of political science Rod Freitag said is not uncommon.

“Bush seemed to have a backlog of cabinet members that wanted to leave but didn’t want to leave before the election,” Freitag said. “I think most presidencies probably see more turnover during their first term than Bush had.”

In a highly publicized move Tuesday, Bush promoted National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to replace Secretary of State Colin Powell.

In Rice’s nomination speech, Bush praised the former Stanford University provost and political science professor who will be the first black woman to serve as Secretary of State.

“In Dr. Rice, the world will see the strength, the grace and the decency of our country,” Bush said.

The White House confirmed Powell’s resignation on Monday, a move senior Jessica Schaid said makes her nervous.

“Colin Powell really seemed to be one of the people in Bush’s cabinet who was not afraid to voice his opinion,” Schaid said. “Even if his opinion differed from the rest of the cabinet.”

As Secretary of State, Rice’s duties will include the oversight of the State Department’s nearly 30,000 employees and 265 posts around the world.

Associate professor of history Selika Ducksworth-Lawton said there are mixed national reactions to Rice’s nomination, which must be finalized with a majority vote in the Senate to be confirmed.

“On one hand, she’s considered a moderate,” Ducksworth-Lawton, a former RAND national security think-tank analyst said. “On the other hand, there are people who consider her far too weak.”

She added Rice’s nomination is, in her opinion, one of Bush’s attempts to consolidate power within the administration.

Associate professor of political science Ali Abootalebi said Rice, an expert on Soviet and East European foreign policy, will have to prove herself to the American public because most people looked favorably on Powell.

“Powell is very tough to replace in terms of his ideology. I think (Rice) is going to have a tough road ahead of her,” he said.

Rice’s deputy Stephen Hadley will replace her as national security advisor.

Another new cabinet member on track for confirmation is attorney general nominee Alberto Gonzales.

Gonzales, the current White House legal counsel, is set to replace divisive political figure John Ashcroft in what appears to be a fairly easy nomination process, Freitag said.

“There’s potential for Gonzales to be less of a strident social conservative (than Ashcroft),” he said. “The emphasis will change, things that get attention will change.”

With both appointments, Freitag said, it is obvious the president is surrounding himself with well-known friends

“I think that, for the most part, Bush with both the Justice Department and the State Department has been really careful to pick people who are already close to him,” he said. “He won’t have any doubt of their loyalties to him as opposed to their loyalties to the departments.”

– The Associated Press
contributed to this report.