The Bush administration has been rebuffed in its efforts to find a high-profile candidate to fill the top White House counterterrorism post.The failure to find a successor to Frances Fragos Townsend, who resigned last January as assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, has frustrated White House aides, given the significance the Bush administration has attached to the job….
Among those who have turned down the job—or made clear they weren’t interested in replacing Townsend—are retired Army Gen. John Abizaid, former chief of U.S. Central Command, and retired Adm. James Loy, former Coast Guard commandant and deputy homeland security secretary, according to three sources knowledgeable about the issue who, like others quoted in this article, asked for anonymity when discussing White House personnel moves. (Neither Abizaid nor Loy responded to requests for comment.) The sources said most of the top candidates the White House contacted expressed little interest in signing on so close to the end of President Bush’s second term. “It’s a friggin’ embarrassment,” said one source who is involved in the recruitment process. The source noted that Townsend announced her resignation last November but didn’t leave the post until January—in part to give the president plenty of time to find a replacement.