Bush schedules White House announcement about Johanns

President Bush scheduled a personnel announcement Thursday morning in the White House Rose Garden amid indications that Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is stepping down.

There have been rampant reports that Johanns wants to run for the Senate seat that is being vacated at the end of next year by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. Johanns' spokeswoman, Terri Teuber, would say only that the secretary had an announcement planned about his future.

The president's announcement was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. EDT. He also planned a news conference at 10:45 a.m.

A Johanns entry into the Senate sweepstakes would be welcomed by Republicans who lost control of the chamber to the Democrats in the 2006 elections and who also are seeing some key incumbents like Hagel and Sen. John Warner, R-Va., opt against running for re-election.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070920/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_5

in preparation for this move. All those rugged individualist farmers sure do like to suck on the public teat.