Labor Secretary Dole Quits Cabinet

Labor Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole today became the first member of President Bush’s Cabinet to resign, saying she wanted to turn her attention to humanitarian concerns by heading the American Red Cross.

“It is with real deep regret that I accept this resignation, but let me hasten to say I understand her desire to continue her public service as president of the American Red Cross,” Bush told reporters at the White House as Dole stood at his side.

Dole, 54, plans to leave her post at the end of November to begin work at the Red Cross in January, Labor Department spokeswoman Dale Tate said. Her first project there will involve disaster relief.

A North Carolina native married to Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas--who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination against Bush in 1988--she dismissed speculation that she may seek the Republican nomination for North Carolina governor in 1992.

“I’m on my way to the Red Cross,” Dole told reporters. “I have no plans to run for anything.”

She has served in government for the last 25 years, holding jobs in every presidential Administration since that of Lyndon B. Johnson.

She said she was leaving government because she “felt a calling to join” an organization performing charitable acts.

“The Labor Department is the peoples’ department, and what we have tried to do there is to use the power of the Labor Department to empower people with the skills they need, with safety on the job and with security of their pensions in their retirement years,” Dole told reporters.

President Bush said: “After a quarter-century of service to this country, Elizabeth Dole has earned the respect of the American people, and as secretary of labor she has made the workplace safer, healthier and more secure.”