The Bush Team

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Feb 5, 2001 | by Aimee Welch, | Diana Ray

Who are they? George W. Bush has made his list of Cabinet nominees and checked it twice. Here is a closer look at all the new president's men and women.

The term "cabinet" as a body of official advisers originally was used to describe a committee of the English Privy Council that gave secret advice to the king in his cabinet or study. Although such counsel still may be privy, here's the scoop on how President George W. Bush is shaping his council and, in turn, his presidency.

Condoleezza Rice, national-security adviser: An accomplished academic and provost of Stanford University, Rice first served with the Bush family as a member of Bush pere's foreign-policy team, on the National Security Council (NSC), rising from director to senior director of Soviet and East European affairs, 1989-91, and then as George W.'s chief adviser on international affairs during his presidential campaign. Conservatives who like her say she is not overly influenced by her pro-China mentor Brent Scowcroft.

The first woman to be named national-security adviser, Rice will be responsible for providing policy advice directly to the president, coordinating intelligence from the State and Defense departments and the CIA. Although her NSC post is not officially a Cabinet-level office, her duties will be considerable and her influence great.

Mitch Daniels, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB): Daniels has private-sector experience (senior vice president of corporate strategy and policy for Eli Lilly and Co.) as well as prior government service. He was political director in the Reagan White House and executive director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Bush says he tapped Daniels to "help ensure that our federal government maintains fiscal discipline." As OMB director, Daniels will be responsible for preparing the federal budget and overseeing its administration within the executive branch.

Ann Veneman, secretary of agriculture: The department should feel as comfortable as a pair of bibbed overalls to Veneman, who held positions there in both the Reagan and Bush pere administrations, including deputy secretary during 1992-93 and deputy undersecretary for international affairs and commodity programs during 1989-91. Veneman, who will be the first woman to serve as agriculture secretary, most recently headed the California Department of Food and Agriculture, one of the largest agriculture economies in the nation, under GOP Gov. Pete Wilson.

Donald L. Evans, commerce secretary: Evans will promote U.S businesses and manage a wide range of agencies, including the Census Bureau. Reportedly, his lack of government experience is compensated for by his expertise in management and finance. Evans is credited with being largely responsible for the $100 million fundraising record set by George W.'s presidential campaign. He served as a chairman of the general election campaign and has been Dubya's chief political fund-raiser since Bush's 1978 unsuccessful congressional campaign. He came to the post as chairman and chief executive officer of Tom Brown Inc., a Texas-based oil and gas company, where he started as a roughneck in 1975 and worked his way up to president within five years.

Donald Rumsfeld, defense secretary: Rumsfeld's career has trekked through key executive-branch positions for almost a quarter-century, including director of the Office of Economic Opportunity for President Nixon; counselor to President Nixon; U.S. ambassador to NATO; chief of staff for President Ford; secretary of defense under Ford; adviser to the State and Defense departments; and member of the General Advisory Committee on Arms Control during the Reagan administration.

A former Navy pilot, Rumsfeld most recently chaired the bipartisan Commission to Assess the United States National Security and Space Management and Organization which addressed the development of a ballistic-missile defense. He favors a program of this sort but has not outlined specific recommendations. As the youngest defense secretary in history, under President Ford, Rumsfeld "was a pretty conservative cold warrior," says Michael O'Hanlon of the Democrat-leaning Brookings Institution.

Jim Lindsay, who served on the NSC under Clinton, says Rumsfeld is a master of the bureaucracy who knows how to get things done. And he'll need to be. "He's got some tough choices ahead of him, including procurement and recapitalization of the forces," says Lindsay.

Rod Paige, education secretary: Bob Lanier, a Democrat and former Houston mayor, says of his friend Paige, "He has practical common sense. He's not divisive by nature and he brings to the job the kind of centrist leadership George W. Bush ran on. He avoids extremes."

Paige comes to his new position from the trenches as superintendent of Houston's public schools, Texas' largest school district and the seventh-largest in the nation. He's the first to come into the post directly from a superintendent's position, says Tom Loveless, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings. Usually the position has been filled by a politician.