Bush Jogs, Phones and Tries to Unwind by Florida Pool

President-elect George Bush let his legs do the running (he went jogging) and his fingers do the walking (he spent much of a sunny Friday at pool side, speaking on the telephone) while his aides prepared for the breakneck pace of the presidential transition.

But even as Bush and his wife, Barbara, relaxed at an oceanfront home loaned to them by a close friend, the business of the President-elect’s new job continued, albeit at a distance from the breezy landscape where he is trying--without total success, he complained--to shed the fatigue of the campaign.

He told an Associated Press reporter who encountered him after his 2-mile jog on the grounds of the Gulf Stream Country Club that the transition effort was going well but that personnel decisions would wait until after he returns to Washington on Monday evening or Tuesday morning.

Brady Appears Secure

But a second position in his Cabinet appeared to be nearly firm. Nicholas F. Brady, a longtime friend of Bush who replaced James A. Baker III as Treasury secretary when Baker became Bush’s campaign chairman in August, appears likely to remain in the Treasury post.

Bush did not specifically deny reports that Brady would hold onto that job. “They’ve been saying that for weeks,” Bush said of such reports.

And his aides said that such a move would not be surprising, though they insisted that no decision had been made.

The President-elect has announced only one Cabinet posting, that of Baker, his closest adviser, to be secretary of state.

Meanwhile, White House Chief of Staff Kenneth M. Duberstein predicted that Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev would meet during the first several months of the new Administration. Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov has said that the Soviet Union favors an early summit meeting.

Tass, the Soviet news agency, announced that Bush had responded to a congratulatory telegram from Gorbachev, telling the Soviet leader that he looks forward to working with him.

“Bush went on to completely agree that a more enduring and stable relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union would benefit not only the two nations but also the whole world,” Tass reported.

Stephen Hart, a Bush spokesman, said that he was unaware of the exchange of messages.

While a pre-inaugural meeting with Gorbachev appears unlikely, Bush will meet Tuesday in Washington with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Wednesday with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

For his part, the President-elect, who brought his English springer spaniel, Millie, his golf clubs and a fishing pole to Florida, remained well out of the business of preparing a new government on Friday, according to his aides.

The vice president told the Associated Press that he did not talk during the day with his transition chiefs, Robert S. Teeter, a longtime political adviser and pollster, and Craig Fuller, his chief of staff.

“We’ve already done that,” he said, apparently referring to a meeting with the two advisers on Thursday before he flew to Florida. Fuller spent part of Friday in his White House office, while Teeter returned to his home in Detroit Thursday.

Much of the vice president’s day was spent making and receiving telephone calls. Hart characterized the calls as congratulatory in nature and said that they “were not about specifics on staffing and transition.”

Among those chatting with Bush Friday were former President Richard M. Nixon and three Republican governors whose support helped Bush during the primary election campaign and in his final push for the presidency: James R. Thompson of Illinois, Carroll A. Campbell Jr. of South Carolina and Thomas H. Kean of New Jersey.

Despite his spirited demeanor, Bush said that he was not quite rested from the long and worrisome campaign. “Haven’t really gotten down to the bottom of the unwinding yet,” he told the AP.

Home of Friends

Bush is staying at the home of his longtime friends William and Sarah Farish. William Farish, who met Bush when the President-elect lived in Texas, has an investment firm that manages the blind trust into which Bush has placed his financial holdings.

The President-elect and Mrs. Bush went for a swim in the ocean after his jog, while the Coast Guard cutter Point Barnes patrolled nearby.

At one point, while about 400 yards offshore, he called to Secret Service agents and aides in a motorized raft to toss him a rope, according to wire service reports. As they did so, he ordered them to “rev it up.”

As the raft towed him toward shore, Bush managed to keep his head above the splashing water. Mrs. Bush, an avid swimmer, swam the full distance back.

Once ashore, Bush walked back to the Farish house, pointed to the courtyard and pool, and said: “That’s where I was all morning, talking on the phone. So you can tell them how we’re roughing it.”

Cathleen Decker reported from Gulf Stream, Fla., and James Gerstenzang from Washington.