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4 New Cabinet Picks Add to Bush’s Diverse Lineup

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

President-elect George W. Bush announced four more top appointments Friday, naming his choices to head the departments of Education, Interior, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services, and nearing completion of his Cabinet.

Bush nominated Wisconsin Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, a welfare reform pioneer, as HHS secretary; Rod Paige, Houston’s public school superintendent, as Education secretary; Gale A. Norton, former Colorado attorney general, as Interior secretary; and Anthony J. Principi, a decorated Vietnam veteran from San Diego, as VA secretary.

The president-elect so far has named a dozen Cabinet appointees, including Donald H. Rumsfeld on Thursday as Defense secretary. With Friday’s announcements, only the top positions at the departments of Energy, Transportation and Labor remain open.

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By including another woman and another African American--Norton and Paige, respectively--among his latest appointees, Bush has assembled a group whose diversity is approaching that of President Clinton’s first Cabinet.

Eight years ago, Clinton made a great show of painstakingly assembling top advisors who would “look like America.” Many of his secretaries, in turn, hired diverse staffs as well. Whether Bush’s appointees will do so is not known, but this is certain: They are a decidedly more conservative group.

Citing Thompson’s stand on abortion, reproduction rights groups, including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, immediately vowed to fight his confirmation. And some environmental activists expressed concern about Norton’s work as an attorney for an organization once headed by former Interior Secretary James G. Watt, whose positions on development they opposed.

All four appointees named Friday are Republicans, leaving Bush still lacking a Democrat to provide a touch of bipartisanship to his administration after the divisive election and its aftermath. His choices still face confirmation in a Senate that will be divided 50-50.

Separately, Bush’s transition team announced Friday that he will convene a two-day summit in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the economy, which he has warned may be heading into a slowdown.

Bush already has presided over two similar sessions on other topics, meeting with leaders on education and agriculture.

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“He’s preparing to govern and lead our nation, and part of that is listening to the experts from the various communities who have an awful lot to say--in this case about the strength of the economy,” said Ari Fleischer, Bush’s designated White House press secretary. Represented among participants will be Wall Street, corporate America and the high-tech community.

The president-elect “wants to gather their input, listen to their ideas and share his with them and have a good give-and-take,” Fleischer added.

In 1992, then-President-elect Clinton also convened a high-level economic summit, which paved the way for an economic stimulus package that contained a tax increase for the wealthy.

Bush, on the other hand, is likely to seek to lay the groundwork for his $1.3-trillion tax cut plan--the centerpiece of his presidential campaign, which he has said could help stave off a downturn.

Also Friday, Bush appointed Clay Johnson, a longtime friend and aide to be assistant to the president for personnel and deputy to White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. Johnson was Bush’s gubernatorial chief of staff and is executive director for the transition.

After the announcements, Bush returned to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, for the New Year’s weekend. No further appointments are expected through the weekend, but the president-elect has said he hopes to name the remainder of his Cabinet by the end of next week.

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Among those he is said to be considering as Energy secretary is Rep. Ralph M. Hall (D-Texas), who is scheduled to meet with Bush next week.

A leading candidate for Labor secretary is Stephen A. Perry, who is vice president for labor relations at a steel and roller bearing firm in Canton, Ohio.

And widely rumored for Transportation secretary is Elaine Chao, who served as deputy Transportation secretary in the previous Bush administration and headed the Peace Corps and United Way.

The other minorities named to Cabinet-level positions in the incoming administration are retired Gen. Colin L. Powell as secretary of State, Mel Martinez as secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and Condoleezza Rice as national security advisor.

Besides Rice, two other women have been named to top administration jobs: Ann M. Veneman as Agriculture secretary and Christine Todd Whitman as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Bush also named Alberto R. Gonzales as White House counsel and Karen Hughes as counselor to the president.

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Clinton’s first Cabinet included three women: Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, HHS Secretary Donna Shalala and Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary, who also is African American. Two other blacks were included: Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy and VA Secretary Jesse Brown. And two Latinos filled out the Cabinet: Transportation Secretary Federico Pena, who later became Energy secretary, and Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros.

Besides Cabinet positions, Bush still has to name his choices for the major positions of CIA director and United Nations ambassador. He also will name the heads of such agencies as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the FBI and the Small Business Administration.

In his latest Cabinet announcements, Bush called Paige “a reformer and someone who had a record of results . . . at every level in education.”

Bush described Norton as a consensus builder who will strive for agreement on such divisive issues as developing America’s resources “in a balanced and an environmentally friendly way.”

Bush said that Principi, who was acting VA secretary in the previous Bush administration, will take the lead in modernizing the veterans’ health care system and return the 200,000-employee department to its “basic principle” of assisting veterans with their benefits.

The president-elect hailed Thompson as “a creative, conservative, compassionate” governor. Thompson is the nation’s longest-serving governor, having held that job in Wisconsin for 14 years.

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During his brief appearance Friday morning at his transition headquarters in Washington, Bush did not take questions but seemed initially to be in a jocular mood.

After Principi spoke about doing right by America’s veterans, a smiling Bush whispered audibly to him: “You read it just like I wrote it.”

But the good humor appeared to dissipate as the news conference ended. As Bush turned to depart, a reporter shouted at him: “Why are you in such a rush to leave?” Bush kept walking, frowning and glowering fleetingly at the reporter.

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