Bush Chooses Ashcroft to Head the Justice Dept.

President-elect George W. Bush announced Friday that he will nominate John Ashcroft, a stalwart of the Senate’s conservative wing and a passionate opponent of abortion rights, to be attorney general.

Bush chose the Missouri senator, who was defeated in his bid for reelection, from a field of more moderate prospects. “He will be faithful to the law, pursuing justice without favor,” Bush said. “He will enforce the law and he will follow the truth.”

Bush also named New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, among the party’s moderates, to direct the Environmental Protection Agency. He praised Whitman’s record of balancing the need to spur economic growth in her state during her seven years as governor with her responsibility to protect its environment. Bush said that she would have Cabinet rank.

The appointment of a conservative at Justice suggests that Bush will take a hard-edged approach to law enforcement issues. Similarly, naming Whitman at the EPA may signal a more moderate approach to environmental regulation. With the announcements, Bush has nominated half of his Cabinet. No more appointments are expected before the end of next week.

He also chose Mitch Daniels, senior vice president for corporate strategy and policy at Ely Lilly Co. and White House political aide in the Reagan administration, to be director of the Office of Management and Budget. And he announced that Gov. James S. Gilmore of Virginia will chair the Republican National Committee.

The Ashcroft nomination is the first made by Bush to draw immediate controversy. The Missouri senator’s strong opposition to abortion rights raised questions among some critics about how vigorously he would enforce laws against abortion clinic violence.

He was also a vocal opponent of Bill Lann Lee, the Clinton administration’s civil rights chief at the Justice Department. That, and his opposition to the appointment of a black Missouri Supreme Court justice to the federal bench, suggested that some senators might be sharply critical of his dedication to civil rights. But he is expected to win easy confirmation.

In an often-overlooked aspect of the job, the attorney general advises the White House on judicial nominations. This could give Ashcroft, who shares other conservatives’ opposition to activist liberal judges, particular influence if Bush fills Supreme Court vacancies.

Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, another possible attorney general nominee favored by some conservatives, was said by a source close to Bush to have been passed over because he long ago incurred the wrath of former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a Bush family confidant.

Keating quit a job as assistant secretary of the Treasury when Baker was Treasury secretary in the late 1980s to accept a job at the Justice Department.

With exactly four weeks remaining until he is inaugurated, Bush is in the midst of both a governmental and personal transition.

He left Austin on Friday to go to his ranch near Crawford, Texas, about two hours away. Aides said that he and his wife, Laura, plan to return tonight to pack for the move to Washington.

On Tuesday, he plans to fly to Houston, pick up his father, the former president, and his mother and leave for a two-day family vacation on Florida’s west coast.

Before he left Austin, the president-elect spoke by telephone with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Bolivian President Hugo Banzer, aides said. He sandwiched in a meeting with representatives of the agriculture industry--farmers and ranchers--and announced the appointments of Ashcroft, Whitman and Gilmore in three separate sessions with reporters.

In announcing his choice of Ashcroft, Bush said that his nominee would be “guided by principle, not by politics.”

Bush noted that Ashcroft, 58, has the Senate seat that was once held by former President Truman. He served two terms as governor of Missouri and was also the state’s attorney general.

In November, he lost his campaign for a second Senate term, defeated in his race against Mel Carnahan, the governor who died in a plane crash in mid-October. Carnahan’s widow has since been appointed to the seat.

“Freedom,” Ashcroft said in his remarks, “can flourish only in a culture defined by the rule of law, a rule of law that knows no class, that sees no color and bows to no creed.”

Ashcroft and Bush peppered their remarks with the word “integrity”--a buzzword that Bush used throughout his campaign in criticizing President Clinton.

“President-elect Bush, you have my word that I will administer the Department of Justice with integrity. I will advise your administration with integrity. And I will enforce the laws of the United States of America with integrity,” Ashcroft said.

The president-elect refused to say how his Justice Department would differ from that of Atty. Gen. Janet Reno. But he called Ashcroft “a man of deep convictions and strong principle” whose job would be to enforce the law “in an impartial way, not in a political way.”

Ashcroft is a strong supporter of the death penalty. The Clinton administration has raised questions about whether the federal death penalty statute is fair, twice postponing what would be the first federal execution in nearly 40 years, that of convicted murderer Juan Raul Garza.

Bush, who as Texas governor oversaw more executions than any other governor, said:

“As I stand here now, I see no reason for there to be a moratorium [on executions] at the federal level. I believe this administration should enforce the laws on the books.”

He added that he would seek Ashcroft’s counsel on the issue.

Bush said that once in office he would listen to complaints about the Garza case, “if there is compelling evidence that the system is not swift and sure and just.”

Among the controversies that have swirled about Ashcroft was that of the first African American judge on the Missouri Supreme Court, Ronnie White, whom Clinton nominated to a federal district court judgeship. He was defeated in a party-line vote last year, with Ashcroft leading the opposition.

Ashcroft staunchly denied critics’ assertions that racial considerations motivated him. He said that White was “soft on crime” and had repeatedly opposed the death penalty in Missouri.

Ashcroft’s nomination drew swift reaction from liberal and abortion rights groups.

The president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Gloria Feldt, citing Bush’s pledge to unite the nation, said Ashcroft’s nomination is “bitterly divisive” and that her organization will “oppose the nomination of this anti-choice extremist.”

But Jerry Jasinowski, president of the National Assn. of Manufacturers, said that the business community would look to Ashcroft to conduct “a thorough review of antitrust policy and the nature of federal litigation concerning the private sector.”

Richard Ben-Veniste, who was an associate Watergate prosecutor and Democratic Senate counsel, said that one likely focus in the consideration of Ashcroft will be “how vigorously [he] would enforce federal laws against abortion clinic violence.

“He has repeatedly voiced strong opinions against a woman’s right to choose, and the public needs reassurance about his stand on violence at clinics, where there has been a very substantial reduction [of violence] during the Clinton administration,” Ben-Veniste said.

Michael J. Madigan, a prominent Washington lawyer and former Republican Senate counsel, praised Ashcroft as “a great choice.”

“His top priority will be strong law enforcement, and he will bring new energy and much-needed integrity and credibility to the position,” he said.

“Gov. Whitman has had a really good record,” Bush said when he announced her nomination later in the day. “She is plenty capable.”

He praised the 54-year-old Whitman’s enforcement of New Jersey’s environmental standards and her role in securing the funds to preserve 1 million acres of open space, while protecting the state’s economy.

“We share a philosophy that moves beyond the old central command and control mind-set that believes Washington has got all the answers to environmental issues,” he said.

In her state, Whitman said, “we know the challenges of reclaiming abandoned industrial sites. We know the need to protect our cities, their quality of water, their quality of life, to ensure that our suburbs and rural areas aren’t overrun by suburban sprawl,” the beaches are protected and forests are preserved.

Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, said in an interview that Whitman had shown an evolution in her approach to the environment. When she took office, she advocated self-policing by industry, much as Bush favors now, and cut the budget for enforcing environmental laws.

But, he said, in her second term she largely restored all of the funding.

“She is somebody we can work with,” he said.

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Gerstenzang reported from Austin and Jackson from Washington. Times staff writers Jack Nelson and David G. Savage in Washington contributed to this story.