Bush Chooses Scowcroft to Be Security Adviser

President-elect George Bush, reinforcing a pattern of appointing seasoned Washington insiders to top jobs in his new Administration, Wednesday tapped Brent Scowcroft for a return engagement as national security adviser, a post he held in the Gerald R. Ford Administration.

At the same time, Bush aides confirmed that the President-elect expects to replace about 90% of the 5,700 political appointees who currently hold Administration posts, many of whom had expected that their Republican credentials would allow them to keep their jobs.

“We’re not trying to set off panic,” said Bush transition director Craig Fuller, but “our first priority is to bring new people in.”

Seeks to Reassure Allies

Both developments fit the tone of change amid continuity that Bush has tried to set since the election. On the one hand, he has tried to establish that the government after Jan. 20 will be truly his and not merely a third-term Reagan Administration. At the same time, he has sought to reassure U.S. allies and nervous world financial markets that the government will be run by senior, experienced hands.

Bush’s senior appointments seem to signal his recognition that having been elected along with a strongly Democratic Congress, he must move away from Reagan’s often confrontational approach to the legislative branch if his Administration is to prosper. Scowcroft, James A. Baker III as secretary of state, Nicholas F. Brady as Treasury secretary, Richard G. Darman as budget director and John H. Sununu as chief of staff are all moderately conservative men known for their political skills rather than for their sharp ideologies.

All but Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire, are longtime Washington insiders with close connections and broad respect on Capitol Hill. Scowcroft, a 63-year-old former Air Force lieutenant general, served on the national security staff as a deputy to Henry A. Kissinger in the Richard M. Nixon Administration before taking over under Ford in 1975 and 1976.

In filling some of these same posts, Reagan, in his first term, installed men like Alexander M. Haig Jr. at the State Department, Donald T. Regan at Treasury and David A. Stockman as budget director--men who were far more ideologically motivated and more skilled at attacking the opposition than negotiating with it.

Bush transition officials hope that his nominees may be able to work together without as many of the sharp personal conflicts that plagued that early Reagan Administration team. In the national security post, for example, Bush made clear that Scowcroft will be an influential, but subordinate, member of his foreign policy group.

Baker, as secretary of state, will be the Administration’s “chief spokesman” on foreign policy, Bush said at a press conference after announcing Scowcroft’s appointment. Scowcroft “will be an honest broker,” he said, who will “convey to me exactly the feelings of the Cabinet members.”

‘Not a Policy-Maker’

“Because of his tremendous experience, obviously, he will convey to me, unvarnished, his own view on policy matters,” Bush added, but the job will be to “coordinate the development” of policy and “not (to be) a policy-maker.”

And Bush said he expects Scowcroft to wake him in the event of a major international incident. In at least one celebrated case--the U.S. clash with Libyan jets off Libya’s coast in 1981--then-White House counselor Edwin Meese III let the President sleep through the night before telling him of the engagement. Bush made clear that he will operate under a different rule.

“Shake me and wake me,” he said, laughing.

According to one source familiar with the selection process, Bush decided to move quickly on the announcement of Scowcroft to cut short a lobbying campaign for the national security job by Richard R. Burt, the U.S. ambassador to West Germany and former assistant secretary of state.

Bush clearly is enjoying the job of shaping the government, a task he sought for more than a decade and he seems to be feeling little pressure. Asked, for example, at the press conference about his feelings for those who are waiting to hear about their futures, Bush responded: “There is a hurtful human side when a decision hasn’t been made, and so I do worry about it. But I’m less tense about that kind of thing than I used to be.”

Others in the government, however, are growing more tense. At a senior staff meeting earlier this week, one Cabinet officer instructed his aides to encourage non-career people in the department not to have high hopes of remaining on the job, one source said.

And, at the Pentagon, where all 218 political appointees have been asked for their resignations, “I would imagine they would all be swept away,” one senior civil servant said. “ . . . Bush owes a lot of debts to a lot of people different from Reagan.”

Many Hiding Places

The bureaucratic ability to survive, however, could slow Bush’s efforts. Although tightening of Civil Service rules has closed some of the loopholes political appointees once employed to save their jobs when administrations changed, the bureaucracy has many hiding places and many officials have powerful political allies who can help them.

Bush, responding to a question at the press conference, said he does have firm ideas about what he wants for one as-of-yet unfilled post, secretary of defense. He said he is seeking an official who can “manage that department . . . (and) institute the reforms that I talked about in the campaign” to improve how the Pentagon spends its vast budget. The new secretary will need “a willingness to take a fresh, tough look in these times of budgetary crunch at the Defense Department.”

Opponents of the most widely mentioned candidate for the defense job, former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.), have charged that he lacks managerial experience and may be lukewarm on reform programs. Bush, however, also stressed the importance of “experience” and “an ability to get along with the Congress,” both strong suits for Tower, who served four terms in the Senate.

On other posts, one key Bush aide confirmed that Robert Mosbacher, a longtime friend and fund-raiser for the President-elect, “looks in pretty good shape” to be named secretary of commerce. He also confirmed that Bush will not ask Lt. Gen. Colin L. Powell, whom Scowcroft will be replacing, to give up his military career for a civilian job. Powell is expected to assume a senior Army command that is a stepping stone to chief of staff.

McLaughlin May Go

Powell would be the Army’s highest ranking black officer. As for potential women appointees, Peace Corps Director Loret M. Ruppe has been actively seeking a post within the Administration, possibly as a counselor to the President. And Labor Secretary Ann Dore McLaughlin has been seeking to keep her job, something the senior Bush aide indicated probably would not happen.

Staff writers Ronald J. Ostrow, Paul Houston and John M. Broder contributed to this story.