Word: predecessor
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Lamar Alexander is used to cleaning up big messes. When he walked into the Tennessee statehouse in 1979, his first chore was to sweep up after the scandal-tainted administration of his predecessor, Ray Blanton. Last week the two-term former Governor and current president of the University of Tennessee took on another big political cleanup job. President Bush asked him to become Secretary of Education and revitalize that Cabinet post after the forced resignation earlier this month of the lackluster Lauro Cavazos. One of Alexander's first priorities, however, will be to help extricate his new boss from...
There was little of that during Cavazos' reign. Although he stumped for "choice" -- a favored Bush approach that gives parents more say over which public school their children attend -- Cavazos never became a bully pulpiteer like his predecessor, William Bennett. Cavazos was handicapped further by Bush's desultory leadership. Since the President announced six national education goals last January, he, Congress and the nation's Governors have done little but squabble over who will assess whether the goals are being met. (Among the targets: every adult must be a skilled, literate worker and citizen; every school must be drug free...
...even the most vocal critics of the new plan have been assuaged by the person who will put it into practice. This new "programming czar" has more power than any predecessor but also a daunting task: maneuvering through the byzantine PBS bureaucracy. "What we wanted was a Solomon," says PBS president Bruce Christensen. "Someone with extraordinary political skills as well as program judgment. And someone who was willing to take the heat...
...administrative leaders of the order who elected Kolvenbach in 1983 wanted him to continue the policies of his predecessor. But Kolvenbach has proved conservative enough, or diplomatic enough, to placate the Pope, even while earning the loyalty of his subordinates. John Paul's warmer attitude was first signaled in 1988, when Kolvenbach was chosen as the preacher for the Vatican Lenten retreat, an honor that was bestowed upon John Paul himself just before he was elected to the Throne of St. Peter. Kolvenbach has been meticulous in carrying out papal directives to the letter, aides say, and he shrewdly picked...
Unlike his predecessor, Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, Mexico's President Carlos Salinas de Gortari seems determined to crack down on the drug lords. In the past 21 months, federal judicial police have confiscated 80,000 kilos of cocaine, more than was seized during De la Madrid's entire six-year term. But the offensive could stall. Last month Salinas announced the resignation of his drug czar, Javier Coello Trejo. Reason: alleged human-rights abuses by police, including murders...