Quick Action Yields a Nominee in Less Than 48 Hours

So quickly did President Bush decide on Rep. Dick Cheney as his second nominee for defense secretary that not even the unmatchable White House switchboard could reach key members of Congress to inform them before the announcement.

Cheney’s longtime friend and Wyoming colleague, Sen. Alan K. Simpson, was on a train headed south through Virginia when the operators tried to reach him. “I’m sure he’ll be surprised,” said his spokeswoman, Mary Kay Hill.

House Republican leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) was also out of town. Staff members scrambled to try to locate him to tell him that Cheney, his chief deputy in the House and the man usually mentioned as his eventual successor, was leaving Congress.

Seeks Longtime Allies

It was the sort of decision George Bush likes to make--quick, no leaks. And it was the sort of decision that might have been expected--although no one seems to have expected it--from a President who likes to surround himself with longtime associates and allies.

Bush and his aides “tend to deal from the inside . . . , they tend not to think radical new thoughts in this kind of situation,” said a senior White House aide. Although the President likes to talk about bringing “new faces” to Washington for his key posts, he has turned repeatedly to people who, like him, served in senior positions in past Republican administrations.

The process leading to Cheney’s appointment took less than 48 hours.

Wednesday night, as Senate Democrats publicly announced the final votes that guaranteed the defeat of John Tower’s nomination for the defense job, White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft hit the phones to begin checking out potential substitutes.

Question Governor

Among the calls was one to Judd Gregg, the governor of New Hampshire, asking whom he would appoint to replace Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) if Bush tapped Rudman for the defense job, a source close to Gregg said. Gregg, who could not be reached for comment, declined to commit himself, the source said, and Rudman was eventually passed over.

Thursday morning, Scowcroft and Sununu met with Bush, who up until then had held fast to his determination not to discuss replacing Tower. They presented a preliminary list.

“The President looked over the list of people he had considered before,” said a White House source, “but then said he was interested in getting someone from the Hill (Congress).”

At that point, the two senior aides began making their first contacts with potential nominees, including several members of Congress whom Cheney had recommended.

By mid-afternoon, however, the focus began to shift to Cheney himself, and at about 3 p.m. Scowcroft called to invite him to the White House for a talk. Cheney arrived at Sununu’s office about an hour later, just as the Senate roll call on the Tower nomination was beginning.

Reunion of Colleagues

For Scowcroft, it was a reunion of old colleagues. Scowcroft served as Gerald R. Ford’s national security adviser while Cheney was Ford’s chief of staff. The two men were both promoted in 1975 in a major staff upheaval during Ford’s term, an upheaval that also brought the U.S. ambassador to China--George Bush--back to Washington to head the CIA.

Overnight, Cheney said, he “agonized” over whether he would accept the job if it were offered. “I’ve loved the House of Representatives,” he told reporters Friday. “I thought that’s where I would spend the bulk of my political career. But when the President asks you to consider a proposition such as this one, you have to take it seriously.”

Friday morning, Bush himself called and invited Cheney to the White House to offer him the job. When he arrived, shortly after 1 p.m., the nominee-to-be had made up his mind.

Over the next three hours, Bush, Scowcroft and Sununu contacted a few key members of Congress, all of whom offered praise for the nominee. Bush himself called House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) to tell him that Cheney would be leaving the House. Sununu called Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) and agreed to talk with him again over the weekend to discuss quick hearings on the new nominee.

And Scowcroft called Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), who had led the opposition to Tower. Cheney, Nunn said later, is “well liked, he’s had a lot of experience. . . . I know of no impediment to his nomination.”

With the calls made, Bush--the new nominee at his side--appeared in the White House press room to announce his decision, capping one of the swiftest selection processes ever. The time had come, Bush said, to “accelerate the clearance process. . . . too much time has been wasted.”