BUSH CABINET Powell and 3 others to resign, officials say

Six members of the Cabinet have decided to step down.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell and three other Cabinet members submitted their resignations, a senior administration official said today, as changes among President Bush's second-term team escalated.
Besides Powell, who had argued Bush's case for ousting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein before a skeptical U.N. Security Council in February 2003, others whose resignations were confirmed today include Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.
Earlier announcements
The departures of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans had been announced last week. The resignations announced today bring to six -- out of 15 -- the number of Cabinet members to decide so far to leave.
Bush already has chosen White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to succeed Ashcroft.
Powell, who long has been rumored to stay only a single term with Bush, told his aides that he intends to leave once Bush settles on a successor, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The White House was preparing an announcement to confirm Powell's resignation. According to one official, Powell expects that his departure date will be sometime in January. It was not immediately clear whether he would leave before Bush's second inauguration, on Jan 20.
Most of the speculation on a successor has centered on U.N. Ambassador John Danforth, a Republican and former U.S. senator from Missouri, and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
Abraham
Abraham, a former senator from Michigan, joined the administration after he lost a bid for re-election, becoming the nation's 10th energy secretary. If he stays at the post until the end of this term, as is planned, he would become the longest-serving secretary at the department.
Sources said that Abraham intends to stay in Washington, where he plans to work in private law practice.
Abraham struggled in his attempt to get Congress to endorse the Bush administration's broad energy agenda, and he was unable to persuade Congress to enact energy legislation. Abraham, on another front, worked aggressively to expand the government's efforts safeguarding nuclear materials and persuaded the White House to put more money into nuclear nonproliferation efforts. He also pushed aggressively to expand research into hydrogen-fuel vehicles.
Paige
The leading candidate to replace Paige, meanwhile, is Margaret Spellings, Bush's domestic policy adviser who helped shape his school agenda when he was the Texas governor.
Paige, 71, the nation's seventh education secretary, is the first black person to serve in the job. He grew up in segregated Mississippi and built a career on a belief that education equalizes opportunity, moving from college dean and school superintendent to education chief.
Veneman
Veneman, 55, an attorney, has been agriculture secretary since 2001. Before that, she was secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, 1995-99, and served with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1986-93, working her way up to become the deputy secretary, the agency's No. 2 official.
Powell has had a controversial tenure in the secretary of state's job, reportedly differing on some key issues at various junctures with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. Powell, however, has generally had good relations with his counterparts around the world, although his image has been strained by the difficult U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Powell, a former chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff under the first President Bush, led the current administration argument at the United Nations for a military attack to oust Saddam, arguing a weapons-of-mass-destruction threat that the administration could never buttress.
Powell submitted his letter of resignation to the president Friday.