Bush Acts Quickly, Chooses Baker for Secretary of State

George Bush, triumphant at last in a decade-long quest for the presidency, moved quickly Wednesday to energize his new Administration by naming longtime confidant James A. Baker III to become secretary of state and promising to create “a brand new team of people from across the country.”

At the same time, Bush sought to signal continuity and reassurance in the field of foreign policy. Embracing the warming spirit that now marks U.S.-Soviet relations, Bush said he would ask Baker to begin negotiations toward a meeting with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, though he cautioned that delays by Moscow in completing its withdrawal from Afghanistan could chill prospects for such a meeting.

“The good policies of the last eight years will continue, the closeness and the consultation will continue,” Bush declared to a throng of several thousand supporters during a welcoming rally at Andrews Air Force outside Washington. “Do not indulge in any hopes that our resolve will weaken,” he warned potential adversaries. “We’re going to continue to stay strong.”

Contras a ‘High Priority’

And, addressing a topic he rarely mentioned during campaign appearances, Bush said he would make renewed aid to Nicaragua’s Contras a “high priority” in his Administration “because freedom and democracy in this hemisphere has a high priority. I will press to keep the pressure on the Sandinistas.”

On domestic issues, Bush repeated a campaign pledge that he would not apply a “litmus test” on abortion to Supreme Court nominees, but he did not specify any potential selections.

He also renewed his election-night pledge to seek reconciliation with the heavily Democratic Congress.

After spending a happy but sleepless election night in his adopted hometown of Houston and then holding a nevertheless crisp news conference, the 64-year-old President-elect returned to Washington and an affectionate White House welcome from President Reagan.

“It’s sinking in now,” Bush said of the prospect of moving into the White House next Jan. 20 after eight years as Reagan’s vice president. The fatigue of the long campaign etched in his face, Bush spent 11 minutes with Reagan in the Oval Office after he and his vice presidential running mate, Dan Quayle, greeted the President in the sun-drenched Rose Garden.

One day after Bush’s electoral sweep, important signs of the character of his new Administration began to emerge. The initial policy pronouncements and appointments, along with the roster of other figures likely to play key roles in the new Administration, suggested a more moderate, pragmatic approach to government than that often taken by conservative ideologue Reagan.

The President-elect sought to underline that message in statements during the day. Aboard Air Force Two, as he flew from Houston to Washington, Bush said the Baker appointment “gets the whole process off on the right foot. It will send a reassuring message. People wonder about change; it’s nice to send a stabilizing signal around the world.”

Bush wasted no time in naming campaign associates and others with long ties to his political fortunes for key jobs on his transition team.

He picked two of his closest advisers, pollster Robert Teeter and chief of staff Craig Fuller, to be co-directors of his transition operation. He said C. Boyden Gray, his vice presidential counsel, would serve as his general counsel in the White House. Two personal friends, Bobby Holt of Midland, Tex., and Penny Korth of Washington, were chosen as co-chairmen of the Bush-Quayle inaugural committee.

For the crucial job of transition personnel director--the central employment chief responsible for filling some 5,000 policy-level federal jobs--Bush chose Chase Untermeyer, a former executive assistant in his vice presidential office. During the election campaign, Untermeyer directed preliminary work on the transition.

Seeks Swift Appointments

The speedy choice of Baker, a fellow Houstonian who served at Bush’s side throughout the Reagan Administration before becoming chairman of Bush’s campaign committee in August, reflected an effort by the vice president to fill some of the top positions in the government in record fashion.

The selection came as little surprise. Campaign and Administration officials had long assumed that Baker, who served Reagan as White House chief of staff and Treasury secretary, would have his pick of jobs in a Bush Administration.

“He has distinguished himself in every job that he’s held,” Bush said.

The vice president praised departing Secretary of State George P. Shultz, whom he said he had consulted about the Baker appointment. “He’s big shoes to fill, but we’ll get the job done,” Bush said.

Bush did not announce any other appointments but left open the possibility that three recent Reagan Cabinet appointees--Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh and Education Secretary Lauro F. Cavazos--might be held over. “I will have announcements of that later on,” he declared.

“Some people at various levels may be asked to remain,” he said, “but as I have stated over the campaign, I think there’s something to be said for reinvigorating the process with new people.”

Thornburgh May Leave

Brady, a longtime Bush associate, and Cavazos, a Mexican-American who would fulfill Bush’s promise to appoint a Latino to his Cabinet, appeared to be in more secure positions than Thornburgh. One source close to Bush and Baker said Thornburgh, who replaced Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III in August, might not be part of the new Administration.

Among those mentioned as possible replacements were William D. Ruckelshaus, the former chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Gov. James R. Thompson of Illinois.

Bush said he would make other Cabinet appointments “fairly soon,” in the weeks after a four-day Florida vacation that begins today.

“I’m going to be thinking about it, be on the telephone . . . probably have a series of announcements within a couple of weeks. . . “ he said. “The Nixon Cabinet was all announced in one dramatic announcement ceremony, but I’m not going to do that.”

Reagan’s entire Cabinet was scheduled to meet with the President today, at which time each member may be asked to submit a resignation, effective Jan. 20, when Bush will be inaugurated.

Washington’s rumor mill throbbed with other possible appointees, many of them governors, members of Congress and veterans of previous Republican administrations.

For defense secretary, well-placed sources said those in the running were former Sen. John Tower of Texas; Paul H. O’Neill, chairman of the Aluminum Corp. of America and a former federal budget official, and Norman R. Augustine, chief executive officer of Martin Marietta Corp., the nation’s seventh-largest defense contractor.

Baker Has Preference

For major economic posts beyond Treasury secretary, Baker was said to be supporting M. Peter McPherson, deputy Treasury secretary and former head of the Agency for International Development, as U.S. trade representative.

Michael J. Boskin, a Stanford University economist who served as a senior campaign adviser, was considered a front-runner for the job of chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Another member of that board would be Larry Lindsay, a Harvard University economist who, like Bush, advocates cutting capital gains taxes to encourage investments and thus raise revenues.

Richard G. Darman, a deputy to Baker in the White House and at the Treasury Department, was said by some to be a leading candidate to head the Office of Management and Budget. But one Baker associate said that Darman “has not always been on the best of terms with George Bush personally” and that Darman was given a senior campaign position only after “a rehabilitation effort.”

New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu, who last February choreographed the primary campaign in that crucial state to restore Bush as a front-runner, figured prominently in job speculation. One possibility, sources said, was that he would be offered the job of commerce secretary, although he is also being suggested for White House chief of staff.

Among those said to be possibly in line for the job of the President’s national security adviser was retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, who held that post during the Gerald R. Ford Administration.

Top Candidates Named

Social Security Commissioner Dorcas Hardy, two sources said, was interested in becoming secretary of Health and Human Services. William Roper, head of the Health Care Financing Administration, was also said to be a potential candidate for the job.

Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, perhaps the most activist surgeon general in the history of the post, is serving a term that does not expire until next November, but it is unknown whether he will choose to finish the term.

Former Rep. John H. Rousselot (R-San Marino), a Washington lobbyist, said former Rep. Dan E. Lungren (R-Long Beach) was being named as a possible immigration commissioner, or drug czar, a new position in which U.S. Customs Commissioner William von Raab was also said to be interested.

Rousselot listed Rep. G. V. (Sonny) Montgomery (D-Miss.) as a potential secretary of the new Veterans Affairs Department.

As Bush took the first steps toward piecing together his Administration, he also moved to ease two concerns--building a relationship with a heavily Democratic Congress after a nasty campaign and setting himself apart from the President whom he had served for eight years.

At a press conference in Houston, Bush cozied up to the House and Senate, which will be even more heavily Democratic next year as a result of Tuesday’s elections. He denied that he had engaged in excessive attacks on Congress during the long campaign.

Cites ‘Great Respect’

“I understand the Congress,” he said. “I served in the Congress. . . . I will try very hard because I start with a great respect for the institution in which I served.”

While spelling out some facets of what his approach to foreign affairs will be, Bush cautioned that he would move slowly until Jan. 20.

“President Reagan is still the President of the United States,” he said, “and I will not be using the transition to try to make or unduly influence decisions that are properly the President’s.”

He also warned that any Soviet refusal to complete the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan could trip up his stated intention to seek further arms-control reductions.

“I would not throw any firm linkage there, but clearly one of the things I’ve addressed myself to in this campaign is the need for a continued reduction in regional tension. And if the Soviets made a determination not to pull out of Afghanistan--which I don’t believe they will do--that would throw a complicating factor over the whole relationship.”

Staff writers John M. Broder, Marlene Cimons, William J. Eaton, Sara Fritz, Melissa Healy, Paul Houston, Lee May, Ronald J. Ostrow, Art Pine and Tom Redburn contributed to this story.