Bush Sees Clinton for Job Briefing in a Familiar House

The office was familiar. His father had worked there for four years. So, too, the house that he visited later. His parents had lived there for eight years.

On Tuesday, President-elect George W. Bush toured a very personal Washington: He paid a late-morning call on President Clinton in the White House that lasted nearly 2 1/2 hours. Ushers, valets and medical staff were greeted teasingly as old friends.

“It’s remarkable,” said one senior White House aide. “Bush knew all the people there.”

In the afternoon, Bush spent about 20 minutes with his defeated presidential rival, Al Gore, at the vice president’s official residence.

The first visit of a president-elect to Washington is always fraught with symbolism--an overture to the inauguration to come and the political changes that will follow. But for Bush, who made his rounds as snow fell on the capital, the day was even more laden with significance as he met with the men whose histories so intertwined with his own.

It was Bill Clinton who denied President Bush, the president-elect’s father, a second term in 1992. And it was Gore who waged a tenacious battle for the presidency and the opportunity to continue Clinton’s legacy.

The president-elect went out of his way to express his pleasure at meeting Clinton. The two sat in front of the Oval Office fireplace, showing no impatience during a photo session as one question followed another.

How different was it, Bush was asked, to visit the White House as president-elect than as a member of the president’s family?

“It’s vastly different,” he said. “It’s such a huge honor to come as the president-elect. And I don’t think I’ll really fully realize the impact until I swear in.

“I suspect the president would say the same thing. And I am humbled and honored. And I can’t thank the president enough for his hospitality. He didn’t need to do this,” Bush added.

Asked whether he had any questions for the president, Bush replied: “If there are, I’m going to ask it in private, and afterward not share them with you.”

As Bush made his way across the city, his second and final day here before a scheduled evening return to Austin, Texas, Republican sources said he was likely today to announce the nomination of his closest friend--and campaign chairman--Donald Evans, to be secretary of Commerce.

Another likely nomination was that of Mel Martinez, chairman of the board of commissioners in Orange County, Florida, as Housing secretary. Born in Cuba, Martinez arrived in the United States in 1962 when he was 15.

And Associated Press reported that he would name Californian Ann Veneman as Agriculture secretary. Veneman, 51, served as director of the California Department of Food and Agriculture from 1995 to 1999, appointed by former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson as the first woman to head the agency. She was the highest-ranking woman in the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1989 to 1991, when she was deputy secretary for international affairs and commodities programs when Bush’s father was president.

One well-placed Republican also said Bush was nearing a decision to name two deputy chiefs of his White House staff: his campaign manager, Joseph Allbaugh, and his domestic policy advisor, Josh Bolten.

The White House meeting began in the Oval Office, in the West Wing, and ended in the family quarters on the second floor.

Over a lunch of curried squash soup, filet mignon, Greek salad and apple tort with maple ice cream in the family dining room, Clinton reportedly offered a detailed tour of the presidency, covering topics from White House operations to what one aide called a blunt look at the personalities and foreign policy choices Bush will soon face on the world stage.

More than once an aide went upstairs to remind the men that they were running beyond the allotted time for the meeting. But they continued talking.

One senior aide with whom Clinton spoke after the meeting said the president was unusually close-mouthed about it, while also conveying that it was “relaxed and informal, but serious.”

“President Clinton felt as though President Bush, in ’92 and ‘93, for all the bitterness, was very generous with his time and advice. The president felt he owed it to the new president to do the same,” the assistant said.

During the photo session, the president made only brief reference to his history with the Bush family--and that in the context of a pressing national security matter.

“When I had this meeting eight years ago with the president-elect’s father, he told me that the biggest problem we were facing was the nuclear program in North Korea,” Clinton said. “Now, the big problem there is the missile program.”

Gore arrived at his residence less than half an hour before Bush. He had just flown in from a weekend vacation on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

As Bush pulled up in a limousine, Gore walked out from his porte-cochere and strode 16 steps toward the president-elect. Bush called out “Mr. Vice President.” Gore responded: “How are you?”

Asked whether he had a message for the president-elect, Gore said, “We’re going to have private discussions.”

Within 35 minutes, Bush’s motorcade was on its way.

It was “a cordial meeting,” Gore’s press secretary, Jim Kennedy, said. “The vice president appreciated the opportunity to give expression to the values he shared with the nation” when he gave his concession speech last Wednesday night and offered Bush his support.

But just what role Gore could play in helping Bush once the current administration ends is uncertain.

The vice president and Bush both focused on health care and education during the campaign--but that did not mean, a Bush spokesman said, that the new president would be soliciting Gore’s views or calling on him to work out a bipartisan approach.

In Austin, Bush plans to meet today with more than 20 representatives of religious groups to discuss how faith-based organizations can help tackle some of the nation’s most intractable social problems.

On Thursday, Bush plans to meet with representatives of Latino groups and congressional members specializing in education issues, and on Friday with farmers and ranchers.

With the appointments he is expected to announce today, Bush is moving beyond the uppermost levels of his administration.

Evans, 54, started work in the oil and gas business in Midland, Texas, as a roughneck. Within five years, he was president of his company. His wife, Susie, and Laura Bush, the president-elect’s wife, attended elementary school together in Midland.

Bush has described Evans as “always the loyal soldier.” Once Evans literally loaned Bush the shirt off his back so Bush could wear an unwrinkled shirt to an appearance by then-Vice President George Bush.

After Bush quit drinking at age 40, Evans persuaded him to join a men’s Bible study class with him. As chairman of Bush’s presidential campaign, he was largely responsible for a fund-raising machine that took in more than $100 million. The Houston native was Bush’s lead negotiator on the fall presidential debates.

Martinez became Orange County chairman in 1998. He chaired the Orlando Housing Authority from 1984 to 1986.

Martinez came to the United States as part of Operation Pedro Pan, the secret airlift that smuggled 14,000 Cuban children into the United States, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

For Allbaugh, 48, the presidential campaign was the second campaign that he managed for Bush. He ran Bush’s successful 1994 bid for governor. In Texas, the Oklahoma native served as Bush’s chief of staff and earned the nickname “Big Stick,” reflecting his reputation as a tough but honest broker. Allbaugh has served as deputy transportation commission of Oklahoma and as chief of staff to former Oklahoma Gov. Henry Bellmon.

Bolten, 46, is a former Yale University professor and served as a staff attorney on the Senate Finance Committee. He was Bush’s chief domestic policy advisor during the campaign and is known for a wry sense of humor and a fondness for motorcycles.

Like many named to top jobs by the president-elect, Bolten served in the earlier Bush administration, as general counsel to then-U.S. Trade Representative Carla Anderson Hills.

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Gerstenzang reported from Washington and Chen from Austin, Texas. Times staff writer Jonathan Peterson in Washington also contributed to this story.