Bush Gets West Texas-Style Send-Off to Washington

Republicans have waited eight years to reach the White House, but President-elect George W. Bush bade farewell to Texas on Wednesday in less than half an hour.

Striding to the grandstand in a white cowboy hat, Bush--genial and relaxed--saluted thousands of spectators in the West Texas city where he spent his childhood, early married days and first professional years.

The audience was exuberant, despite long lines and cold, and waved small American flags as Bush pledged to take their values to Washington.

“You’re the man, George!” bellowed one man in a cowboy hat soon after Bush took the podium.

West Texas, Bush said, helped form the ideals he would stress as president, including optimism, bipartisanship and respect for public service.

“Our deepest values in life often come from our earliest years,” Bush said. “It is here in Midland and in West Texas where I learned to respect people from different backgrounds. It is here where I learned what it means to be a good neighbor. It is here in West Texas where I learned to trust in God.”

Midland, Bush said, was the site of the most important events of his life, including meeting wife Laura. Though he left this oil boomtown after seventh grade and attended an East Coast high school and universities, Bush returned to Midland in 1975. Three years later, he made an unsuccessful bid for Congress from this city.

Standing beside his wife on the Midland platform, Bush said that he plans to lead the country with the same principles that guided him as governor of Texas.

“When you talk about Texas today, you’re talking about people from so many different backgrounds, different cultures and different languages,” he said, sounding a note that he is expected to trumpet during his inaugural address Saturday. “Any conflicts that once divided us now belong to history. We’re all Texans. And we’re all Americans.”

While governor, he recalled, he had worked closely with the late Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock and House Speaker Pete Laney, both Democrats.

“I can assure you we disagreed, but when we did so, we did so in a respectful way,” Bush said. “This too is a spirit that I will carry with me to Washington.”

But he also evoked his campaign theme of disdain for the scandals of the Clinton administration.

“I promise,” Bush said to cheering listeners, “that my administration will never forget the dignity and duty the White House represents to millions of Americans.”

During his first week in office, Bush plans “a series of events” on education and submit a “comprehensive education plan” to Congress within the same time frame, spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

The legislation--Bush’s priority--is expected to give states significant new leeway, in part by collapsing about 50 existing federal aid programs into fewer than half a dozen. Bush also is likely to seek $5 billion over five years for a “reading first” program for disadvantaged children, as well as additional billions of dollars in college grants for low-income students.

*

Times staff writer Edwin Chen in Washington contributed to this story.