Like so many Republican Cabinet appointees before her since 1980, the departure of Ms. Norton only leaves one shaking one's head over their "philosophy" upon entering public service in the first place: entering government to turn over as much of it as possible to commercial interests, and often on terrible terms to the public interest.  

Can't wait to see Mr. Bush's next move.

William R. Neil Rockville, MD

I worked for 9 years in a small town that hosted a National Park headquarters and visitor's center and have a good many friends that are/were long-time NPS employees ... from seasonal rangers and interpreters to admin types. The reign of Gale Norton has killed their morale and sent many of them looking for work elsewhere.

In some cases it was a matter of lost funding to keep positions open, in others it was policies that ran contrary to the protection/preservation mission that had attracted these people to the Park Service in the first place. It broke my heart to hear them talk about their despair.

I am sure that they are cautiously celebrating on the news today ... but worried about what wonderful cronie replacement Bush has up his sleeve.

If a twigg falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, it's probably best because there is bound to be cussing.

Am I being overly cynical when I suspect that the Bush administration has hired women for jobs in which they are expected to look busy, while really doing little or nothing, except to take care of the Bushies' friends?  That seems to have been too much to ask of Christine Todd Whitman; and probably also of Condi Rice -- it is interesting to speculate how "loyal" she would have been, if she had not been mollified by being offered a promotion.  Whitman and Rice had been in charge of big places before ever they came to DC, after all.  Surely they understood perfectly that Karl Rove was whispering in W's ear, telling him how much it would improve his re'sume' to hire some chicks.  And surely it would bother them to be considered "Bush girls."

Karen Hughes is sui generis, arguably the most interesting woman in DC (or Cairo, or wherever).  (Sorry, Laura.)  The most interesting non-woman in DC is of course Sam Alito, strange replacement for our favorite AZ cowgirl.  (Of the crash-and-burn of the Hughes-ish Harriet Myers, the less said the better.)

So where does Gale Norton fit in?  Closer to Hughes than to Whitman, I think.  But not too close.  The personal loyalty to W. is not there.  The figure in the administration that she resembles most is probably Dick Cheney.  They share the sense that regulation is bad, federal oversight is bad, corrupt and highly interested local governments are best, and the extraction industries are what make this country great, and a few of us rich (but that is good too).  In short -- if I may confess a Northeastern prejudice -- , they represent what we least like and most fear in the Western US.

Really, the rest of the US would not mind, surely, if NYC became an independent city-state?  In a matter of years, we are all going to be under water anyway.  (What a humiliating irony, to be a post-ocean-level-rise refugee, begging for help from some guy in Ohio who voted for Bush/Cheney.)

I am amazed that the possible curtailment of the west coast salom fishery has not been discussed on NPR or Grist.  Secretary Norton's decision to select a handful of "experts" to dismiss the NOAA Fieries and USFWS biological opinions, and give the farmers water in the Klamath basin resulted in what some call the largest fish kill in the history of the U.S..

The fishery management council is considering the curtailment of the west coast salmon fishery because the Klamath stocks are so low, and though the Sacramento fishery is considered healthy, the Klamath stocks intermingle with the Sacramento stocks.  This is Norton's legacy.

Shall I say, THANK GOODNESS you are GONE!!!!!

I can't think of a worse leader to have been in this position.  You are evil!  Giving up protection to our wilderness areas is far from disgusting, it is beyond that!  You should be ashamed of yourself and how you handled things in your position.  

Don't blame Bush b/c we all know he is a looser!  Blame yourself for allowing your head up your ass when it comes to our environment and the beautiful animals in it!