Bush Plans for New Administration
By KAREN GULLO, Associated Press Writer
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - George W. Bush forged ahead with planning for a new administration Monday, establishing a transition beachhead in Washington and preparing to begin naming prospective Cabinet members.
"We believe it is time to get on with the business of organizing the new administration," Bush's vice presidential running mate, Dick Cheney, told a news conference in Washington.
Cheney, still recovering from a mild heart attack and arterial surgery, was named by Bush on Sunday to oversee the transition effort.
While Bush remains in Austin, Texas, Cheney will oversee efforts in Washington to put together a new government. Denied federal funds and office space earmarked for the transition, Cheney announced that the Bush camp would begin its operations with private financing.
He announced that Clay Johnson, Bush's gubernatorial chief of staff, would serve as executive director of the prospective transition.
Cheney also announced that Ari Fleischer, a senior campaign spokesman who had moved to Austin for the campaign, would return to Washington to serve as transition spokesman.
For his part, a day after declaring himself the winner of the presidential election based on his certified - but legally challenged - victory in Florida, the Texas governor met with his choice as White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, and got down to transition business.
The General Accounting Office in Washington is refusing to open a transition office or release $5.3 million for the next president-elect until the contest is settled.
Even before Cheney's announcement, Card signaled plans to "open our own transition office. ... We know how important it is to keep moving."
Cheney promised "a number of announcements, obviously, in subsequent days."
"I expect we will be selecting Cabinet secretaries. We've already spent a lot of time talking about that between ourselves," Cheney said.
He would not commit to a timetable, however.
Bush was expected to move quickly to designate retired Gen. Colin Powell as secretary of state in a Bush administration, and Stanford University scholar Condoleezza Rice as national security adviser. He was also expected to give economist Lawrence Lindsey a top economic job.
Bush settled on these selections before the election and has not changed his mind, aides said.
However, there remained some questions about scheduling, with Powell hoping to wait until some of the legal fireworks had subsided, the aides said.
"I don't know that we will announce anybody" over the next few days, Cheney said. "I wouldn't want to forecast that. I wouldn't foreclose it. It's conceivable that we might, during this period of time, actually go forward and announce one or more Cabinet members," he said.
Associates close to Bush said the list of prominent Republicans under consideration for top jobs included Montana Gov. Marc Racicot and Indianapolis Mayor Steve Goldsmith. Racicot, who has emerged as a top advocate in the recount fight, has been mentioned as a possibility for Interior secretary or attorney general. Goldsmith's name has been circulated as a potential housing secretary.
Bush hopes to appoint at least one Democrat to a high-profile job, his associates said. Former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., has been mentioned as a possible candidate for defense secretary and Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt of North Carolina could find himself on a list of potential education secretaries, aides said.
Cheney said that the Florida recount has delayed any real beginning of transition planning.
"Thirty percent of the time ordinarily available is already gone," said Cheney, who has been involved in several transitions, including the one between Nixon and Ford in 1974.
He was Ford's chief of staff, and later served as defense secretary in the administration of Bush's father.
"We have to get onto the business now of beginning to talk to people about possibly joining the administration, sourcing others for their ideas and thoughts on who might be willing to serve, beginning the process of preparing people to go through the full-field investigations the FBI requires; the complete financial disclosure that's required by the Office of Government Ethics; preparation for the confirmation process in the United States Senate," Cheney said.
"And, of course, all of this has to happen in the middle of the holiday season," he added.
There are some 3,000 top positions to be filled by the new president - nearly all of them now held by Democrats.
Despite continued legal challenges to the Florida certification, "it does not change our obligation to prepare to govern the nation," Cheney said.
Bush on Monday attended to some Texas business, including signing papers that made final his own state's vote in the presidential election. Bush won Texas handily.
He also joked with reporters and photographers about what people should call him. "Sir, at least in your case," Bush joked to one questioner.
His aides said he won't call himself "president-elect" while Gore continues his legal challenge, and that "governor" would continue to do.
