Who's who in Obama's cabinet

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Putin dismissed his prime minister

In surprise cabinet shake-up:

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed his long-serving prime minister Wednesday and nominated little-known Cabinet official Victor Zubkov to replace him in a surprise move that could put Zubkov in the running to replace Putin next year.

The nomination of Zubkov, who currently oversees the government's fight against money-laundering, appeared to have caught much of the Russian political elite off-guard.

Putin had been expected to announce in December whom he would back to run for president next year -- and Russia's two first deputy prime ministers -- former Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and gas giant Gazprom board chairman Dmitry Medvedev -- were widely considered to be the leading contenders.

After dismissing Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov -- triggering the government's automatic dissolution -- Putin explained the shakeup was required to "prepare the country" for forthcoming elections.

Proof that Georgie and his staff are deeply closeted

Bush finally confesses:

THE PRESIDENT: I want to thank my economic advisors for joining me here in the Cabinet [sic] today.

Wonder if Jimmy/Jeff Gannon is in there....

Stuck in a political quagmire

Of their own making:

In his political report today, Robert Novak hints that other members of President Bush’s Cabinet would like to follow the example of VA Secretary Jim Nicholson and resign:

The sudden resignation by Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson came as a huge surprise in Washington. Nicholson says he is feeling his age at 70 years, and there are a number of cabinet members who would like to leave. He has no political plans.

Somehow I can't really feel sorry for them. They aided and abetted the Bush administration and did its dirty work willingly. Now the lid is ripped off and we get to see up close and personal how they prostituted themselves; how they turned their backs on the Constitution and the rule of law; how they helped break our country, our treaties, and our military; how they almost gave us a monarchy.

You guys can try and quit, resign and run away, but we have your names. We have proof of the work you did, the lies you enabled, the laws you broke.

And we won't forget.