Bush Names Sullivan, Four Others to Top Jobs

President-elect George Bush filled five top-level jobs in his Administration today, brushing aside objections from the anti-abortion movement to name Dr. Louis Sullivan to be the new secretary of health and human services.

In addition to Sullivan--his first appointment of a black to a major post--Bush also named Samuel Skinner of Chicago to be secretary of transportation, former Rep. Edwin Derwinski (R-Ill.) to head the new Veterans Department, former Rep. Manuel Lujan (R-N.M.) as secretary of the Interior and William Reilly, president of the World Wildlife Fund, to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

The appointments bring to 12 the number of Cabinet appointments Bush has announced, leaving only the top jobs at the Energy Department and Labor Department unfilled.

Bush said Sullivan has had “a long and distinguished career” in medicine and said the two “see eye to eye” on the issues facing HHS but he did not mention the abortion issue.

Comments Sullivan made earlier in the week that suggested he believed women had a right to choose abortion angered anti-abortion activists, who urged Bush to pick someone else.

“I’m opposed to abortion except in the case of rape, incest or the threat to the life of the mother,” Sullivan said in a brief statement. He also said he opposes federal funding for abortion, except when the life of the mother is threatened.

“This position is the same as that of President-elect Bush,” he said.

Sullivan said he was certain reporters would have questions, but he said he would not answer them out of courtesy to the senators who would question him at his confirmation hearing.

All Cabinet officials face confirmation hearings, and all so far have fielded questions from reporters after their appointments were announced.

Bush told reporters, “I’m pleased to report today that the process (of filling his Cabinet) is nearly finished and today I’d like to announce my choices for four Cabinet posts and one critically important post that is not in the Cabinet.”

Sullivan, the first black to be named to the Cabinet so far, is president of the medical school at Atlanta’s Morehouse College. Bush’s wife, Barbara, serves on the board of trustees of the college and Sullivan is a personal friend of the family.