At Inaugural, President Seeks to Heal Wounds of Divisive Election

George W. Bush took office as the nation’s 43rd president Saturday and pledged to heal the wounds of a divisive election and “build a single nation of justice and opportunity.”

In a brief but graceful speech delivered under a bone-chilling drizzle outside the Capitol, Bush called on Republicans and Democrats to join in “civility, courage [and] compassion” to relieve poverty, improve education and build a new sense of community.

Later, at lunch with congressional leaders, the new president restated his hopes in down-to-earth terms: “Expectations in the country [are] we can’t get anything done. People say, ‘Well, gosh, the election was so close, nothing will happen except for finger-pointing and name-calling and bitterness.’ I’m here to tell the country that things will get done, that we’re going to rise above expectations, that both Republicans and Democrats will come together to do what’s right for America.”

Democratic leaders responded in the same spirit. “It set the right tone,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). “I hope he will continue to reach out.”

“People are very interested on our side in trying to find common ground, getting things done,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Extending a courtesy by acting quickly, within hours the Senate confirmed seven Bush Cabinet nominees, including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill.

But on the streets around the Capitol, there was ample evidence that the bitterness of last fall’s election, which ended in a 37-day legal battle over vote recounts in Florida, has not disappeared.

Thousands of anti-Bush demonstrators lined Pennsylvania Avenue, the route of the traditional inaugural parade, and taunted the new president with chants of “Hail to the thief.” Bush supporters responded with “Bush won. It’s over.”

And even official bipartisanship had limits. Within minutes of Bush’s swearing in, his White House chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., issued an order to freeze all Clinton administration regulations that have not gone into effect, including new Medicare rules and environmental protection actions.

In most respects, the ceremonies were a normal presidential inauguration, the 20th peaceful transfer of power from one political party to another in the nation’s history.

But in many small ways, it was a most unusual event:

The new chief executive is the first son of a president to win the White House since 1824. His father, former President George Bush, wiped away a tear as the son took the oath of office and reversed his family’s electoral defeat at the hands of Bill Clinton eight years before.

President George W. Bush took the oath of office from Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who wrote the Supreme Court opinion that halted Florida’s recounts and awarded Bush the White House over then-Vice President Al Gore.

Former President Clinton, who dominated the nation’s political stage for eight years, left the capital in a blaze of seeming reluctance--and only after issuing a flurry of inauguration-morning pardons (including for his half-brother, Roger, and his Whitewater business partner Susan McDougal) and delivering a long farewell speech to supporters. “I left the White House, but I’m still here,” he said.

Clinton’s wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, flew with him to New York but planned to return almost immediately to resume her new duties as a U.S. senator.

And at the inaugural parade, an event intended to honor the new president, anti-Bush protesters were almost as numerous at some spots as Bush supporters.

But neither the noisy protests nor the daunting weather--from chilly drizzle to bouts of sleet to slicing rain--impeded the new president’s swearing in, inaugural address or parade.

The new president, 54, was bareheaded and overcoated as he gave his speech, even as members of Congress and the Supreme Court huddled shrink-wrapped inside clear plastic rain parkas that the organizing committee handed out.

Bush made one concession to the weather--or to security concerns: He stayed in his limousine nearly the entire length of the mile-long inaugural parade, waving through a slightly foggy window. He got out to walk only for a brief distance when his motorcade reached the VIP grandstands in front of the Treasury Department and the White House.

The new president’s inaugural address was only a little more than 14 minutes long, one of the shortest of modern times. It focused on broad themes, not specific programs.

Bush thanked Gore “for a contest conducted with spirit and ended with grace” and reached out to those who voted against him.

“Sometimes our differences run so deep, it seems we share a continent but not a country,” he said. “We do not accept this and we will not allow it. Our unity, our union, is the serious work of leaders and citizens in every generation.”

He promised to make “compassion” a hallmark of his administration and said: “In the quiet of American conscience, we know that deep, persistent poverty is unworthy of our nation’s promise. . . . Where there is suffering, there is duty. Americans in need are not strangers, they are citizens.”

And, echoing his father’s inaugural address 12 years before, he said that the remedies must come from both government action and private charity--in the younger Bush’s version, most often religious-based charity.

“Government has great responsibilities for public safety and public health, for civil rights and common schools. Yet compassion is the work of a nation, not just a government,” he said.

Those lines drew strong applause from Democrats on the terrace of the Capitol. But other lines drew war whoops from Bush supporters standing in the rain on the Capitol grounds--those repeating his campaign commitments to cut taxes and increase defense spending.

Leading Democrats praised the speech but added that the chances for bipartisan cooperation still depend on whether the president is willing to compromise on matters of substance.

“The words today were beautiful. They were stunning in their sweep and sentiment and very enriching,” said House Minority Whip David E. Bonior (D-Mich.). “What he does will speak more loudly than what he says today.”

“He needs some victories early on,” said Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.), “and that will make him legitimate with the rest of the country.”

But not everyone was complimentary. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) declared the speech “vacuous.” Still, Frank noted, Bush’s message was very different from the anti-government themes of some Republicans. “It shows the extent to which conservatives in America have come to terms with the reality that people want government in their lives.”

Republicans were effusive.

“He’s starting a very significant romance with the American people,” said Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.). “They can’t help but like this young man.”

“There’s enough direction for Congress to know exactly what he was talking about,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “There’s a certain consistency in the guy’s message that tells me he has thought for a long time about his vision for America and how to accomplish it.”

The new White House action in blocking last-minute regulations from the Clinton administration was a move that has become standard procedure when one party takes over from another. Ronald Reagan halted several measures imposed by Jimmy Carter in 1981. Bill Clinton turned back several taken by the elder Bush in 1993.

The White House order prohibits the publication of new regulations in the Federal Register, a necessary step before they can take effect, until they have been approved by the new administration.

The action apparently would halt guidelines for managed care programs under Medicare, environmental restrictions on the runoff from massive animal feeding operations and the designation of the former military post on Governors Island in the New York harbor as a national monument. That designation had been made at the recommendation of New York’s two Democratic senators, Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But it does not appear to change a decision restricting logging in nearly 60 million acres of national forests, which was issued after a long review process that would take a similar review to reverse.

The pardons Clinton issued Saturday morning would also not be affected by Card’s action.

Such freezes on the actions of departing presidents have become conventional first steps by new administrations.

The moratorium on printing new rules, said Ari Fleischer, the new White House press secretary, “enhances our ability to review them.”

“I expect some will be repealed, some will be amended, some will be kept.”

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Times staff writers Janet Hook and Aaron Zitner contributed to this story.