Selection of Energy, Drug Nominees Stalls

President-elect Bush’s plan for completing his Cabinet--a task that he once had hoped to finish by Christmas--has stalled over sharp disagreements on his remaining two appointments.

Thursday, Bush lost candidates for both slots--secretary of energy and a Cabinet-level “drug czar.” Opposition from oil-state figures, including Texas Gov. Bill Clements, forced him to abandon thoughts of giving the energy post to James R. Schlesinger, who headed the department under Jimmy Carter. And Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) revealed at a press conference that he had turned down Bush’s request to take the anti-drug post.

Could Break Logjam

Transition aides did not rule out the possibility that Bush quickly could break the logjam over the two posts. But, for now, with the Inauguration only two weeks away, the President-elect has asked his advisers to come up with new names, aides said. In both cases, however, the central problem appears to be not so much who should fill the job, but what the job should be.

Bush and his aides believe that they need someone to head the Energy Department who can handle the troubles of the nation’s civilian and military nuclear plants. But that impulse has been countered by the desire of Bush supporters in his home state of Texas to have a secretary who is particularly sensitive to the needs of the oil and gas industry.

“People in the Oil Patch are sure beginning to feel like they’ve been left out totally,” one industry official said. Bush, a former oilman, needs to find a “candidate he can sell” in Texas, said Texas Railroad Commissioner Kent Hance, a former GOP congressman.

For the newly created drug post, Bush aides say that the debate centers on whether the appointee should be a senior law enforcement official who would coordinate existing agency anti-drug efforts or a high-profile leader who might try to take over the turf of other officials, such as the attorney general.

“That can be a very mischievous post,” said one Bush transition aide, noting that the law Congress passed this fall to create the job potentially gives the drug czar immense power. “If you have a cowboy, he could run riot,” the aide said.

Concerns Raised

Several of the candidates who have sought the job have raised particular concerns among officials at the Justice Department and other law enforcement agencies.

Former Education Secretary William J. Bennett, for example, has expressed a deep interest in the post and has taken steps to make sure Bush knows of his interest. But Bennett, said one transition aide, “has a lot of baggage” and has come to typify the “cowboy” approach that many government officials worry about.

For example, last year, at a meeting of the National Drug Policy Board, Bennett called for sending U.S. military helicopters to Bolivia to attack coca crops and processing facilities. He cited the precedent of Operation Blast Furnace, in which U.S. helicopters helped Bolivian officials move against coca processors.

A Pentagon representative on the board noted that Bolivia does not want a repeat of the U.S. role and suggested that U.S. forces could not, therefore, enter the South American country. Bennett was undeterred. “What’s the problem,” he said, according to a source who was present. Officials could take U.S. helicopters, “just paint the hammer and sickle on them” and head on in.

Customs Commissioner William von Raab, who has actively sought the post, and flamboyant Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, whose name has been floated as a possible candidate, have both drawn opposition for similar reasons.

Just Reelected to Senate

DeConcini, who was one of the prime backers of creating the drug post, began his public career as a county prosecutor in Arizona with a particular interest in drug fighting. But, he said Thursday, he did not believe that he could leave the Senate seat to which he had just been elected to a third term. In addition, had DeConcini left the Senate, a Republican would have been the odds-on favorite to replace him in Republican Arizona.

Staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this article.