Overcoming criticism about his handling of Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has won a strong vote of confidence from President George W. Bush and will remain at the Pentagon. It settles one of the last major questions about who goes and who stays in the second-term Cabinet. Rumsfeld's future was sealed in an Oval Office meeting with Bush on Monday but not announced until Friday, the Associated Press reported today. Also on Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced he was leaving _ departing with a warning about a possible terror attack on the nation's food supply. "For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do," Thompson said. "We are importing a lot of food from the Middle East, and it would be easy to tamper with that." With Thompson's resignation, eight members of Bush's 15-person Cabinet have said they will depart. Treasury Secretary John Snow, despite being called by the White House a valuable member of the president's economic team, has not received a public endorsement of continued service. Snow, who has been in the job less than two years, declined in an appearance Friday on CNBC to reveal whether he has submitted or offered to submit his resignation.
