POLITICAL WRAP
December 22, 2000

Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and The Weekly Standard editor David Brooks analyze the Bush Cabinet appointments.

 

Online Special: Bush's Transition Election 2000 Covering Election 2000 Dec. 20, 2000: A panel discussion on Bush's new Cabinet appointments Dec. 19, 2000: Bipartisanship seems more necessary than ever Dec. 19, 2000: President-elect Bush inherits a slowing economy Dec. 18, 2000: Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle Dec. 18, 2000: George Bush announces his first Cabinet appointments Dec. 15, 2000: Shields and Gigot discuss the Bush transition. Dec. 15, 2000: A discussion on post-election America. Dec. 15, 2000: Claims of voting rights infringement. Dec. 14, 2000: Day One of the Bush transition. Dec. 14, 2000: House Speaker Hastert discusses prospects for bipartisanship. Dec. 14, 2000: Former Vice President Mondale reflects on the end of the election debate. Dec. 13, 2000: Shields and Gigot discuss a Bush presidency. Dec. 13, 2000: Law professors examine the Supreme Court decision. Dec. 13, 2000: Politicians look at the political road ahead. Dec. 13, 2000: Historians on the significance of the presidential race. Dec. 12, 2000: The nation awaits word from the Supreme Court. Dec. 11, 2000: Law professors discuss the arguments before the Supreme Court. Dec. 11, 2000: Brooks, Broder and Oliphant discuss the high court situation. Dec. 8, 2000: The Fla. Supreme Court orders recounts. Dec. 8, 2000: Shields and Gigot comment on the Florida decision. Dec. 8, 2000: Historians discuss the Fla. decision. Browse the NewsHour coverage of Politics & Campaigns and Law.     News for Students: The Bush transition.   George W. Bush	JIM LEHRER: Shields and Brooks, syndicated columnist Mark Shields, Weekly Standard editor David Brooks. Paul Gigot is on vacation. First, Mark, do you see any sign that the leadership, the respective leaders of the Senate have worked out anything on power sharing or headed toward any kind of peaceful resolution?
	Stalemate or partisanship in the Senate?
	MARK SHIELDS: Not really, Jim. The comments I had were from Don Nichols, the Republican deputy leader in the Senate who said that somebody has to drive the car, and that's why there ought to be a Republican chairman. I don't think you can argue with that quite frankly. But there had to be some compromise made on staff, that what most people don't know is the party that controls the majority in both Houses has always had a big edge, twice as many staff on the key committees. There is a parity on some of the minor committees. And that's what Democrats I think are going to fight for. JIM LEHRER: And, of course - but Senator Daschle said on this program just this week is what he wants is also 50-50 on committees and Senator Lott has said no way. DAVID BROOKS: That's not going to happen. As Don Nichols probably knows, Aristotle said the problem with democracy is nobody is in charge. There's no one to hold responsible for, and that is what -- the argument the Republicans have been making. If anything, I see people laying down markers saying, you know, what is wrong with a little partisanship? There saying that on both sides. JIM LEHRER: Does this mean -- what does it mean? Is there going to be stalemate, is there going to be blood on the floor? Or are they going to say okay, great, fine -- we'll work it out and we'll move on? MARK SHIELDS: Well, I mean, John McCain has already infuriated the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee as folks are quick to remind you -- the most popular elected official in America according to public opinion data has said that he would be happy to go 50-50 and so has Ted Stevens, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. So there's some... there's not total unanimity in the Republican ranks on this either.
	A conservative nomination
	JIM LEHRER: All right. Let's go to the Bush cabinet choices: Ashcroft for attorney general -- a message is being sent. What is it, David? DAVID BROOKS: Conservatives, we remember you. The conservatives were about to go down to Florida and demand a recount, get some of those dimpled chads for Gore because they were getting kind of upset, but they got a conservative. And Bush got a guy who is an executive. That's obviously extremely important for him, looking at somebody who can do something administratively. A lot is being made that the guy is very pro-life, quite conservative. But one of the other things that is striking about Ashcroft is he is incredibly morally earnest. I mean that as a compliment. It is going to make life difficult for the Bush administration because he is a bit aloof from people, very into his own conscious. And there will come times when it comes time to appoint a prosecutor, or an investigator not an independent prosecutor like we have now because that is gone, but somebody to look into Bush scandals and he will actually be quite independent I think because of that incredible moral earnestness. JIM LEHRER: Mark, what do you think? MARK SHIELDS: It's an interesting choice, Jim. I mean, they say if you want to send a telegram, go to Western Union and Gary Bauer sent a message this week on the show when he spoke for a lot of conservatives and said this is a bipartisan cabinet being assembled except for conservatives. And I think John Ashcroft more than exceeds the conservative standard. He briefly flirted with a campaign for President in 2000. And he had the initial support of the group that ended up supporting George W. Bush against John McCain. That was the Christian Coalition and a number of the religious conservatives. He was their first choice. It won't be total smooth sailing to confirmation. JIM LEHRER: You think the Democrats will...on the pro-life issue? MARK SHIELDS: No, I think the resistance will be on his... he spearheaded the opposition to the confirmation of a judge from …an African American judge from the state of Missouri named Ronnie White. It became a pretty ugly battle in the Senate. And John Ashcroft carries some scars from that. But I think that by nominating John Ashcroft, and I still think the Justice Department is the heart, soul, lungs and vital organs of any administration because you've got civil rights, you've got the environment, you've got criminal, you've got antitrust. I mean it's all there. I mean, Attorney General really sets the tone and the temper. But I would say this, in a strange way, it probably hurts the chances of Dan Coats, the conservative's choice to be Secretary of Defense because the conservative.... JIM LEHRER: They only get one slot. MARK SHIELDS: But it certainly takes some of the urgency. If it had been John Danforth, for example, from Missouri, I think - JIM LEHRER: Or Racicot from Montana.
	Internal politics
	MARK SHIELDS: Or Mark Racicot from Montana. JIM LEHRER: Do you agree with that, David? DAVID BROOKS: From what I hear Dan Coats is in trouble. JIM LEHRER: What's the problem? DAVID BROOKS: I think Bush wants - JIM LEHRER: Make sure, he is the former Senator from Indiana. He has been out of the Senate now for. what, four years. DAVID BROOKS: Very conservative. JIM LEHRER: Very conservative. And he was the leading candidate to be secretary of defense. Everybody thought it was a done deal and then boom. DAVID BROOKS: Apparently. He didn't have a great meeting with Bush. Bush likes junior achievement guys. I mean, look at who he's picking, people who can really run an organization. There is another person he's talked about, Paul Wolfowitz who runs CEISS - JIM LEHRER: The Center for Strategic Studies of at John Hopkins. He was in the old Bush administration - the first Bush administration. DAVID BROOKS: He was an ambassador and then defense - Bush -- his problem I think might be that he is incredibly smart. And other people in the foreign policy team don't want somebody so smart around the table, especially people who already have a lot of interest in the Pentagon, like Cheney and Colin Powell. JIM LEHRER: Where is he going? DAVID BROOKS: My guess would be another executive. Why should any corporate boardroom be left full of somebody? Bush has to get corporate boardroom people. One of the persons they're talking about is Donald Rumsfeld, who was secretary of defense. JIM LEHRER: Had the job before. DAVID BROOKS: And could come back. JIM LEHRER: Do you have anything to add to that? MARK SHIELDS: One of the complicating factors is Colin Powell, Jim. I mean, Colin Powell, unlike most Secretaries of Defense -- not only comes with a national constituency but comes with military credentials -- and there is a certain apprehension among other power centers or would-be power centers in the Bush administration-to-be that Colin Powell could become the 800-pound gorilla. JIM LEHRER: What about the Vice President -- he's the former secretary of defense. MARK SHIELDS: He's running the whole thing. JIM LEHRER: That's another story. MARK SHIELDS: They need a counter weight or at least some people who don't agree with Colin Powell need someone who is a formidable counter weight at the pentagon.
	Whitman to head the EPA
	JIM LEHRER: Speaking of counter weight, where does Christi Whitman fit into this? DAVID BROOKS: Sort of the poster person of liberal Republicanism - she will - JIM LEHRER: Is she a real liberal Republican? DAVID BROOKS: I think so, yeah. She's a Northeastern liberal Republican from an affluent family, she will keep the wilderness areas safe for steeplechase over at the EPA. You know, a few years ago.... JIM LEHRER: He said that, you didn't. MARK SHIELDS: Beat me to it. DAVID BROOKS: A couple of years ago... I try to get serious here. A couple years ago, people were talking about the southern captivity of the GOP, all these populists from Texas, but now we've got a President from Texas but the southern captivity sure is over. We've got Northeastern Republicans and we've got the corporate Republican wing, you know, the people who own the country are going to get to run it for four years. JIM LEHRER: What do you make, Mark, of this flap over... well, the Clinton administration accused President-elect Bush of talking done the economy, talking about a recession, and a slowdown and all of that. And the President-elect came back and said hey, come on, I'm just talking straight and that's what you better get used to. What do you think? MARK SHIELDS: Can I just say one thing on Christi Whitman? JIM LEHRER: You may indeed. MARK SHIELDS: The environment was the Achilles Heel of George W. Bush on the campaign. The Democrats used it against him in the Pacific Northwest and the upper Midwest. The fact under his second administration, Houston became the smoggiest city in the country. I think if you come from Midland, Odessa Texas where it isn't the end of the world but you can see it from there, I think it's fair to say, Jim - JIM LEHRER: Watch it, Shields. MARK SHIELDS: I think it's fair to say that anybody who will rise from the hounds is seen as an environmentalist. You don't really think of New Jersey as being the mint standard for environmental protection. I think he bought - I think he bought what he perceived to be somebody, as David described, a as sort of a moderate Republican who is not stridently anti-business but certainly doesn't have the enmity of environmental groups. JIM LEHRER: And now, as they say on television, now to my question. MARK SHIELDS: Okay. I finally concluded what the Republican position is on Bill Clinton, and not Mr. Bush but the Republicans, the prosperity of the past eight years Bill Clinton had nothing to do with. But if there's any prospective economic adversity in the next four years under George W. Bush, it's all Bill Clinton's fault. I mean, this seems to be the position of Cheney and the President-elect at this point. The argument for a tax cut was that there was so much money in Washington that people had to get it back. Now it's a new argument, which is we have to have it to stimulate the economy which sounds a little Keynesian. JIM LEHRER: David. DAVID BROOKS: I'm not sure anybody is blaming Clinton for this recession. We had eight years of fantastic growth started by Ronald Reagan and George Bush the elder and that carried through, but now there are clear signs of recovery. And we're in this silly fighting war -- the Bush people talking this recession into being -- which is like watching two crows to argue about who caused the sun to set. The thing's happening, and the interesting thing is how it will affect our politics. It does give some reason to have a stimulating tax cut but it also is going to hit the surplus projections and it also really may upset some international economies. So one of the things -- that's really going to put tremendous pressure which we haven't had on the budget process and it's really going to cause a lot of the poor people in Congress on both sides of the isle to really have some problems. JIM LEHRER: So we have may a big wave that says never mind in terms of the campaign. And then now have the new reality. DAVID BROOKS: If all those surpluses go away, there will be still tremendous pressure for a tax cut. MARK SHIELDS: I'd still point out.... JIM LEHRER: You have to do it next week. MARK SHIELDS: Okay. JIM LEHRER: Thank you though. Good-bye.