New Faces: Bush’s Cabinet

RAY SUAREZ:

We're joined by two Senate leaders, Republican Don Nickles of Oklahoma, the assistant majority leader, and Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority whip.

Senator Nickles, maybe we could start with you. You heard the President-elect talk about the significance of appointing a Democrat to the cabinet. It came in the last series of appointments, something he said he wanted to do. As a member of the Senate, what do you see as the significance?

SEN. DON NICKLES, Assistant Majority Leader:

Well, I like President-elect Bush doing what he said he's going to do. I compliment him on his choice. I've known Norm Mineta, I served with him when he was in the House. He has a lot of respect. He did a good job over at Commerce for President Clinton. And I think he'll do a very good as Secretary of Transportation for President Bush.

RAY SUAREZ:

Senator Reid, same question. What do you see as the significance of the appointment of a Democrat to the Cabinet?

SEN. HARRY REID, Minority Whip:

I think it's very important. I think Secretary Cohen has been an outstanding person for America. He certainly hasn't hurt his Republican credentials. I think Norm Mineta will be a good Democrat and do a great job with transportation. Frankly, I don't know of anyone in America that could have been chosen that knows more about transportation than Norm Mineta. He served on a very large infrastructure committee in the House, has 45 or 50 members. In fact maybe they've raised it to 60 now. It's a huge committee. He's done the bill with us every five years, the very important transportation bill. He's worked in the private sector. I just think he will be a great Secretary of Transportation.

RAY SUAREZ:

Is there a… while there's a similarity in the numbers, a quantitative parity, is there a qualitative difference between the portfolios? Was it a more significant thing to make a Bill Cohen Secretary of Defense one of the top jobs in the cabinet as opposed to making a Democrat Secretary of Transportation?

SEN. HARRY REID:

I felt all along that we should have some parity, that it would have been nice to have a Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, maybe an Attorney General, but, you know, we got what we got and Norm Mineta is a qualified guy and the President-elect has a right to pick anyone he wants. We'll have to take each of them at face value, have some hearings and see how things go. I don't want the fact that Mineta wasn't chosen for Secretary of Defense or one of the bigger positions to take away from his qualifications. He is going to be real good.

RAY SUAREZ:

Senator Nickles, is it an apples-to-apples comparison when you take a look at the two departments and their prestige within the cabinet?

SEN. DON NICKLES:

Well, I just think you look at the appointments that President-elect Bush has made, I think they're outstanding. If you look at the top positions, Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Paul O'Neill, those are outstanding people. Norm Mineta, as my colleague Senator Reid said, he's exceptionally well qualified for Secretary of Transportation. So he's got an all-star cabinet. I think he did a fantastic job putting the cabinet together. And I compliment him for doing it so quickly. That was more difficult than one would anticipate because the election took so long, but I think he's got a great cabinet and I think they'll they will be a real credit to America, and my compliments to the President for putting together so quickly.

RAY SUAREZ:

Well, you mentioned that the election took so long. In fact, the Bush process of appointing the cabinet was shorter than a lot of modern Presidents. He did it rather quickly, and now that we've seen the shape of the complete proposed Cabinet, what do you think it says about how the President- elect intends to govern?

SEN. DON NICKLES:

Well, I think it speaks very well for him. I think it's a cabinet of almost unequaled stature from the top positions all the way down. These are people who are enormously well qualified who can do a fantastic job, who have a great deal of credibility, leadership, stature already on their own. So, these aren't individuals that are going to need on-the-job training, that are going to be overwhelmed by bureaucracy or… and that could easily happen. All these Cabinet-level positions, they all have thousands of employees. They're enormously complex. I think he's got some great people who will; you know, grab the challenge and work with Congress. Most all of them are professionals in the fact that they've managed businesses or they've had enough experience either in the Pentagon or in Congress that I think they'll work with Congress– Democrats and Republicans– to get some positive accomplishments for our country.

RAY SUAREZ:

But, Senator Nickles, when you look at their backgrounds, when you look at the ideological strands of the party that they represent, does this proposed Cabinet reflect the closeness of the election, the closeness of the national legislature?

SEN. DON NICKLES:

Well, I just think it's an outstanding cabinet with very good, qualified people. Again, whether you're talking about Don Rumsfeld or you're talking about Paul O'Neill or John Ashcroft, several of these people, these are outstanding people who are enormously well qualified who, I think, will do a fantastic job for our country.

RAY SUAREZ:

Senator Reid, you wanted to say?

SEN. HARRY REID:

Ray, I think that we have to realize that these people haven't yet been confirmed by the Senate. I accept every one of them at face value. I think we have to say the President-elect has a right to choose anyone he wants and he's done that. But now we go into the hearing process. And I think, generally speaking, these people are going to be confirmed but we know that there are things that are going to come up during the hearings as, I think, Linda Chavez, that's going to be an interesting hearing. I think we're going to find out what she written about… you know, anyone that has written a lot, we have to say, have they in effect Bork-ed themselves, that is, going back to the Bork Supreme Court nomination he'd written so much that he wound up trapping himself. We'll have to see what she has written. We'll have to see what she's said. We have to look at the Secretary of Interior very closely, Gale Norton, to find out if her close association with Secretary Watt has been something that disqualifies her. At this stage I know nothing. I think we have to look at our former colleague, John Ashcroft, who I think he's a very fine man. But there are people who need to look at what he said to find out what his involvement was with the Ronnie White episode, to find out if he's willing to enforce the laws as it relates to clinic violence and other things.

At this stage — I repeat — at face value they're all fine, good people, but the hearing process develops and goes off on tangents, we've learned during the past 25 years, that develop different scenarios. We'll have to wait and see. I do say this in support of my counterpart on the Republican side: I really think that President-elect Bush has done a good job in getting these people to us very quickly. In years past, we've waited and waited and waited for these nominations to come to us. We, the Senate, have no problem now. We can't blame it on Bush that we're not doing these hearings hurriedly, that he's holding us up. It's up to us to get a government in place as quickly as we can.

RAY SUAREZ:

Well, Senator Nickles, you just heard maybe not the Democratic Party's playbook but a couple names have come up that may bring some added scrutiny. Are you concerned about one or another of the various designates having a rough time when it comes time for hearings?

SEN. DON NICKLES:

No, I don't, Ray. I will just guess that all of his nominees will be confirmed by overwhelming votes. That doesn't mean we won't have some serious questions before the confirmation process. Usually you hear people say, oh, they're really going after John Ashcroft. I know John Ashcroft. I think most of our colleagues know him. He's an outstanding Senator, former governor, former Attorney General. You couldn't be more qualified for the position of Attorney General. He had eight years as Attorney General in Missouri, graduated from distinguished law schools and was an outstanding Senator, happened to serve on the Judiciary Committee. I think he's eminently qualified. I think he will be confirmed with the rest and Gale Norton, I happen to have known her. She was a candidate for the Senate a few years ago. She will do a very good job as secretary.

So, anyway, I'm confident that President-elect Bush has made some great nominations and they'll stand up to the scrutiny of the confirmation process. One of the things I hope that we'll do is make sure we don't go into the Bork process and "Bork" somebody. I hope that we don't try to crucify somebody because they happen to be nominated for a Cabinet- level position. We need to review their records; we need to find out where they stand on issues, but my guess is that the Senate is going to start conducting itself a little more appropriately, maybe the way we did several years ago, where most nominees will be confirmed in pretty short order.

RAY SUAREZ:

Well, during this small window of time between the naming of the cabinet members and the beginning of the confirmation process, is the fax machine in your office warm to the touch? Is the phone ringing off the hook? What happens about now for sitting Senators?

SEN. DON NICKLES:

Well, I'll let my colleague answer right now. There's always intense scrutiny on anything they've ever said or written. My friend, Senator Reid, said something about Linda Chavez. She's been on TV; she's written a lot. And so I'm sure they'll find some ammo and maybe some people will try and destroy her record. But I know her well, and she'll be an outstanding Secretary of Labor and I'm sure she'll be confirmed as well. But anything they've ever written, ever said, will be used either for them or against them, but again with this caliber of nominations, I think they'll all get through.

RAY SUAREZ:

Senator Reid, are you starting to hear from advocacy groups on one side or another?

SEN. HARRY REID:

Of course. But the one thing I want to elaborate on what Don has said: You know, this nomination process is very difficult. Filling out the forms is very difficult, not only for Cabinet officers but sub-Cabinet and people within the White House and other offices that make up this federal government. We've got to make it easier to get people to want these jobs. That's one of the difficult things. So I would hope that when we go through the confirmation process with these cabinet officers, we are thorough but we want to be fair. I think we need to do that. We have to make people want these jobs. What has developed over the last 20 years in Washington is we're having trouble getting people to take these jobs because of the brutality of the process itself. And so I would hope we can join together as Democrats and Republicans to make the process more civil.

RAY SUAREZ:

Senator Reid, Senator Nickles, thank you both for joining us.