The Short List For EPA

Few top posts in the federal government are as thankless as the job of running the Environmental Protection Agency. Green groups fly into a rage when they perceive the EPA lowering its protective vigilance; industries find every regulation a threat to their bottom lines. Who wouldn't grow weary of these warring factions? Christine Todd Whitman did, and announced last month that she will leave her post as EPA administrator on June 27. The short list of prospective replacements, confirmed by a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity, consists of Tom Skinner, the head of an EPA regional office; Idaho Gov. and former Sen. Dirk Kempthorne; and Deputy EPA administrator Linda Fisher.

Whitman's successes — promulgating regulations that slash diesel pollution and issuing fiats forcing General Electric to clean up part of New York's Hudson River —  may eventually outlive her struggles. But White House reversals on regulating greenhouse-gas emissions and last-minute, Clinton-era rules for regulating arsenic in drinking water smashed her credibility with environmental groups early in the administration. The White House has yet to name a successor or indicate when it will decide.

A big part of the Bush administration's calculus is its well-known penchant for message discipline. The success of cabinet members, it sometimes seems, is judged by how well they broadcast policies received whole from the White House, rather than by their advice and guidance in creating them. When the outspoken and off-message Paul O'Neill was fired from his post as Treasury Secretary last year, it didn't take a political scientist to predict the qualities that his successor would have: consistency and loyalty. At look at the candidates: