A Cabinet Picked by Bush's Firm Hand

By Edwin Chen

Dec. 10, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON —

With his second-term Cabinet all but selected, President Bush clearly intends to exert an even firmer control of his activist agenda than he did during his first four years, relegating the agencies to the role of carrying out his decisions.

Bush’s nomination Thursday of Jim Nicholson, the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican and a former Republican Party chairman, as secretary of Veterans Affairs -- and the White House’s announcement that the secretaries of Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor and Transportation would stay on -- means that 13 of the 15 Cabinet positions have been selected. Nine Cabinet members will be new.

But the remake of the Cabinet belies the extent to which Bush is seeking to extend his grip by dispatching some of his most loyal aides to key agencies, including the departments of State and Justice.

“There’s no question that the president intends to keep the policy-making locus within the White House,” said Norman J. Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative public policy center in Washington.

“That’s definitely his intention,” said Kenneth F. Warren, a political scientist at St. Louis University.

Even the dispatching of trusted confidants to the departments “doesn’t mean that it’s going to strengthen the Cabinet agencies,” Ornstein said. “It’ll just extend the long arms of the White House even further.”

Warren said Bush’s second-term Cabinet suggested an architect who wanted to correct what he perceived as “disloyalty problems.” He cited the tenure of Bush’s first Treasury secretary, Paul H. O’Neill, who proved far too independent-minded for the White House and was fired after two years -- and then was the source for a book critical of the administration.

The administration is now “prioritizing loyalty over the best they can get,” Warren said.

But White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan disputed the notion that the second-term Cabinet would lack genuine clout.

“The president is putting in place a strong, experienced and very capable Cabinet team that consists of people whose views he trusts and advice he values,” McClellan said. “Cabinet secretaries are very involved in the policy decision-making process in addition to being instrumental in the implementation of the decisions the president makes.”

The latest round of personnel announcements leaves unfilled only a handful of top White House and administration jobs as Bush prepares to launch an ambitious second-term agenda that includes an overhaul of Social Security and the tax code.

Among open positions are a United Nations ambassador and the secretaries of Energy and Health and Human Services. Bush also must choose a domestic policy advisor.

All nominations to the Cabinet require Senate confirmation, as does the U.N. ambassador’s position.

The president personally announced Nicholson’s nomination but left it to McClellan to disclose that Bush had spoken with Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta and HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson -- and that all had agreed to continue serving. On Wednesday, the White House ended nearly two weeks of speculation over the fate of Treasury Secretary John W. Snow by announcing that he too would stay on. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld also is remaining.

Nicholson, like the current VA secretary, Anthony J. Principi, is a decorated Vietnam veteran. The son of tenant farmers in Struble, Iowa, and a graduate of the United States Military Academy, Nicholson served eight years as an Army Ranger and paratrooper, eventually retiring as a full colonel after 22 years in the Army reserves. He received a master’s degree in public policy from Columbia University and a law degree from the University of Denver.

A residential real estate developer in Colorado, Nicholson was named GOP chairman in 1997 and led the party when Bush, then governor of Texas, was elected president four years ago. Bush named him ambassador to the Vatican in August 2001.

In a brief White House ceremony Thursday, the president called Nicholson “a man of deep conviction who has answered his country’s call many times.”

“Jim has worked with the Vatican to advance many vital foreign policy goals, including fighting poverty, hunger, AIDS, expanding religious liberty around the world, and ending the brutal practice of human trafficking,” Bush said.

If confirmed by the Senate, Nicholson would head an agency with 230,000 employees serving 25 million American veterans, 75% of whom served during wartime.

Nicholson said it would be “a singular honor” to serve in the Cabinet, and added that he was “eager for the work ahead.”

For the vacant positions, the president has selected national security advisor Condoleezza Rice to be secretary of State, succeeding Colin L. Powell; White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales to be attorney general, succeeding John Ashcroft; former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik to head Homeland Security, succeeding Tom Ridge; Carlos M. Gutierrez, chairman of Kellogg Co., to be Commerce secretary, succeeding Don Evans; Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns to be Agriculture secretary, succeeding Ann M. Veneman; and domestic policy advisor Margaret Spellings to be Education secretary, succeeding Rod Paige. Rice, Gonzales and Spellings have served Bush in various capacities since his days in Austin.

In addition, Rice’s deputy, Stephen Hadley, will take over as national security advisor.

The leading candidate to succeed Tommy G. Thompson as secretary of Health and Human Services is believed to be Medicare chief Mark McClellan, who has served previously as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and, before that, Bush’s chief healthcare advisor in the White House. His brother, Scott, is White House press secretary.

Bush also has not named successors to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, U.N. ambassador John C. Danforth and Spellings.

The real question may be who is going to replace the departing White House insiders, said Paul C. Light, a public policy professor at New York University.

“It doesn’t matter whether there’s new blood at VA or Agriculture or Commerce. Those aren’t key players in the policy agenda,” he said.

Light contended that weaknesses remained on the White House economic team, even with Snow’s new lease at Treasury -- in part because he emerges diminished after 10 days of widespread speculation over his fate, during which White House aides stubbornly declined to offer public words of reassurance.

“We still can’t be sure who’s on first when it’s time to draft a grand economic design,” Light said. “It’s just not clear. [National Economic Council director Steve] Friedman is gone. Snow is wounded. There’s no Shaquille O’Neal out there. So after all this flurry of activity, I’m not sure they solved the economic team situation.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Bush’s second-term Cabinet takes shape

President Bush has filled 13 of his 15 Cabinet positions with new choices or returnees from his first term. The newly appointed members must be confirmed by the Senate.

Nominees

Agriculture

Mike Johanns

Nebraska governor

Out: Ann M. Veneman

Commerce

Carlos M. Gutierrez

Kellogg Co. CEO

Out: Don Evans

Education

Margaret Spellings

Domestic advisor