| Gale Ann Norton | |
| |
| 44rd President of the United States | |
| In office: January 30, 2002 - January January 20, 2005 / ? | |
| Vice President: | Richard B. Myers |
| Preceded by: | George W. Bush |
| Succeded by: | ? |
| 48th United States Secretary of the Interior | |
| In office: January 31, 2001 – January 30, 2002 | |
| President : | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by: | Bruce Babbitt |
| Succeded by: | Dirk Kempthorne |
| Biography | |
| Born: | March 11, 1954 (age 54) Wichita, Kansas |
| Nationality: | American |
| Political party: | Libertarian Party Republican (1996-ongoing?) |
| Husband: | (1) Harold Everett Reed (married 19??, divorced 19??) (2) John Hughes(married 19??) |
| Children: | Barbara Pierce Bush and Jenna Welch Hager |
| Residence: | White House (official) Crawford, Texas (private) |
| Alma mater: | University of Denver |
| Occupation: | Businesswoman (oil), Politician |
| Religion: | ? |
| Signature: | File:Signature.PNG |
Gale Ann Norton (b. March 11, 1954) was the 44th President of the United States, ascending to the office on January 29, 2002 after the death of President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and most of the Cabinet on that date during a terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol building. Norton, Secretary of the Interior at the time, was the 'designated survivor' and was thus not present during the attack. She is the first woman to become President, the first President from Colorado and the first pro-choice Republican.
President Norton's first action was to nominate a strong Vice President, in the form of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers, then invoked the 25th Amendment and recused herself from office. She said at the time, and repeated later, that she needed some time to herself after being 'catapulted' into the most powerful office in the world. She also said she chose Myers because he was the most qualified person in America to lead in the wake of such a disaster.
President Norton has enjoyed high approval ratings throughout her time in office, as high as 97% immediately following the attack. Her popularity is higher among independent voters than either of the major parties. Democrats, though they support her actions in response to the 1/29 attack, have criticised her on her environmental record and support for polluters, while many Republicans have attacked her on her pro-choice stance. The President's critics refrained from making their attacks until the 2004 election; with the 'state of emergency' persisting for so long, partisan politics was deemed inappropriate by both parties and the media.
Gale Ann Norton (born March 11, 1954) served as the 48th United States Secretary of the Interior from 2001 to 2002 under President George W. Bush. She was the first woman to hold the position. She become the 44th President of the United States when George Bush and many other higher US politician were assassinated on State of the Union Attacks, she was the first woman to hold that position, too.
Early life and career[]
Norton was born in Wichita, Kansas and raised in Wichita and Thornton, Colorado, and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Denver in 1975 and earned her Juris Doctor degree with honors from the same university in 1978. She divorced her first husband,Harold Everett Reed, when he was publicly outed as gay by the Denver local gay newspaper, OutFront [1]. She is currently married to John Hughes. In the late 1970s, she was a member of the Libertarian Party and was nearly selected as its national director in 1980. Norton has been associated with a number of groups in the "wise use" or "free-market environmentalist" movement, such as the Property and Environmental Research Center [2], of which she is a fellow. She also worked as Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and, from 1979 to 1983, as a Senior Attorney for the Mountain States Legal Foundation.
Political career[]
From 1991 to 1999, Norton served as Attorney General of Colorado. Prior to her election as Colorado Attorney General, Norton served in Washington, D.C. as Associate Solicitor of the United States Department of the Interior, overseeing endangered species and public lands legal issues for the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service.
She vehemently defended Colorado's gay discrimination amendment all the way to the US Supreme Court where it was struck down as unconstitutional. Her fight for amendment 2 cost Colorado millions in boycotts against the state.
In 1996, she was a candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, but was defeated by then-Congressman Wayne Allard. Before being named Interior Secretary in 2001, Norton was senior counsel at Brownstein, Hyatt & Farber, P.C., a Denver-based law firm. The firm was listed with the U.S. Congress as a lobbyist for NL Industries, formerly known as National Lead Company.
In 2004, Norton was mentioned as a possible candidate for the U.S. Senate in her home state of Colorado, after the incumbent, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, decided to retire. However, she ultimately decided against it, and the seat was won by Democrat Ken Salazar.
Norton resigned as Secretary of the Interior in March 2006. She was succeeded by Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne.
Retiring from her position as Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton landed a position at Royal Dutch Shell Oil company as a law advisor in their oil-shale division, drawing further critics from environmentalists due to her prior pro-developmentalist position regarding oil drilling and national forests.
Jack Abramoff controversy[]
Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA) was founded by Norton and Grover Norquist in the 1990s. Jack Abramoff directed his tribal casinos to donate $225,000 to CREA.
In a February 2002 letter to Norton, John Doolittle complained that a Louisiana tribal casino had been wrongly shut down because the Bureau of Indian Affairs refused to recognize a newly elected tribal council. The subsequent new council hired Abramoff's firm after the elections. In June 2003, Doolittle wrote a letter to Norton criticizing the Bush administration's response to a tribal government dispute in Iowa. In October 2003, Doolittle appealed in a letter to Norton for quicker action for a Massachusetts tribe that was seeking federal recognition.
No evidence has been presented suggesting that mailing these letters to Norton had any impact on her or on the Department of the Interior.
Both the Iowa and Massachusetts tribes hired Abramoff's lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig, in that year.
Cabinet[]
(Pre) was in same position in Previous administration Bush-Cheney
(Nex) will in same position in Next administration Bush-Cheney
- President: Gale Ann Norton
- Vice President: Richard B. Myers
- Secretary of State: Condoleezza Rice 2002-2005
- Secretary of the Treasury: John Snow 2002-2005
- Secretary of Defense: Robert Gates 2002-2005
- Attorney General: Alberto Gonzalez 2002-2005
- Secretary of the Interior: Dirk Kempthorne
- Secretary of Agriculture: Mike Johanns 2002–2005
- Secretary of Commerce: Donald Evans 2002–2005 (Pre)
- Secretary of Labor: Elaine Chao 2002–2005 (Pre)
- Secretary of Health and Human Services: Tommy Thompson 2001–2005
- Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Mel Martinez 2002–2003 (Pre)
- Secretary of Transportation: Norman Mineta 2002–2005
- Secretary of Energy: Spencer Abraham 2002–2005
- Secretary of Education: Rod Paige 2002–2005
- Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Anthony Principi 2001–2005
- Secretary of Homeland Security: Michael Chertoff
- Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency: Christine Todd Whitman 2001–2003
- Director of the Office of Management and Budget: Mitch Daniels 2001–2003
- White House Chief of Staff: John Weaver
- National Security Advisor: Condoleezza Rice
- Chief of Staff: Andrew Card 2001–2006
- Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy: John Walters 2001–2009
- United States Trade Representative: Robert Zoellick 2001–2005
| Preceded by Wikipedia: George W. Bush |
President of the United States of America January 25, 1999 - present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |