Bush prepares to appoint Colin Powell and Condio Rice to Cabinet

The Bush camp announced a fund-raising drive on Monday to start a private “transition office” if the Clinton administration did not hand over the 90,000 sq.ft transition office space and $ 5.3 million reserved forpreparing an incoming administration.

Still attending to his gubernatorial duties in Austin, Texas, Bush also began making low-key moves to fill in key Cabinet posts.

Gen. Colin Powell is said to be a shoo-in for Secretary of State and Stanford academic Condoleeza Rice, who has served as Bush’s foreign policy advisor, is tipped to be the National Security Advisor.

The buzz in the Republican quarters is that the third post of a trio of principal Defense Secretary could go to a Democrat. The most favoured candidate in that case is Sam Nunn, a former Senator from Georgia and a long-time defense expert. Nunn is also tipped to be in Gore Cabinet if the vice-president succeeds.

American cabinet-making is only slightly less complicated than the Indian exercise. The reasoning behind including a Democrat in the Republican cabinetis ostensibly to close the rift caused by the bitter electoral battle. Clinton had similarly appointed Republican William Cohen as his Defense Secretary.

However, one argument in the Republican ranks is that since two of the three principal posts will go to African-Americans (a solid Democratic constituency), the Defense Secretary too has to be from the Republican ranks, with the post of Agriculture Secretary going to a Democrat.

The Republican front-runner for Defense Secretary in that case is Paul Wolfowitz, another think-tanker who like Condi Rice served under George W’s father, former President Bush. Also in the running is Norman Augustine, a prominent veteran of America’s famed military-industrial complex who has served a chairman of Lockheed Martin and Martin Marietta.

In fact, the George Dubya Bush cabinet may have so many veterans from his father’s cabinet that the joke is some quarters is when junior walks into the Oval Office, he may see papa Bush already occupying the Presidential seat. (The other popular zinger making the rounds is that Florida’s Secretary of State Katherine Harris will be appointed ambassador toChad.)

The presumptive president-elect’s presumptive chief of staff Andrew Card is also from the papa Bush era — he was White House deputy chief of staff andtransportation secretary under former President Bush. So is presumptive vice-president Dick Cheney who was Defense Secretary under former President Bush.

For the post of Treasury Secretary, Bush is reported to considering people with Wall Street experience. Two men being mentioned in this context are Jack Hennesy, former chairman and chief executive of Credit SuisseFirst Boston, and Donald Marron, chairman and chief executive of the Paine Webber Group.

The all-important position of Chairman of the Federal Reserve will remain unchanged. Alan Greenspan, a card-holding Republican who has presided over the fate of the US (and world) economy for 12 years and who has been celebrated in a recent Bob Woodward book titled Maestro, will remain in his post.

The Bush camp is however keeping any public announcement of major appointmens on hold, in part to downplay any impression that they are power hungry, and also in deference to the various court cases still being heard.

Bush in fact joked when the reporters asked him whether they should address him as President-elect or Governor. “For you, `Sir’ will do,” the man who is widely thought to be witless is reported to have kidded a questioner.

On Monday, Dick Cheney announced a couple of minor appointments ostensibly to show they are moving ahead with the transition. He named Clay Johnson, who is Bush’s gubernatorial chief of staff, as the executive director of the transition. He also named Ari Fleischer, a senior campaign communications adviser, as the spokesman for the transition.

But Republican Congressional ranks, who have been humbled and outmanoevred by the Democratic White House for the past eight years despite their majority and frustrated in their effort to fix Clinton, are alreadyreacting with joy at the prospect of their man in 1600, Pennsylvania Avenue.

Senator Majority Leader Trent Lott, Republican from Mississippi, instructed committee chairmen to prepare for hearings the first week in January on Bush’s prospective cabinet nominees. Lott said the hearings should immediately follow the swearing-in of senators on January 3.

“Given the protracted contest to determine the presidential victor, it is critical that we move expeditiously and be prepared to confirm the newcabinet on Jan 20 after the President has been sworn in to office,” Lott said in a statement.