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Bush Arrives For Talks With Clinton, Congress
by Lauren Gelfand
WASHINGTON (AFP) – U.S. President-elect George W. Bush arrived here late Sunday on his first visit to the nation's capital since he was officially confirmed as the 43rd President of the United States.
The Republican has scheduled meetings this week with President Bill Clinton and his former Democratic rival, Vice President Al Gore, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, and congressional leaders from both parties.
"I look forward to going to the Hill, and then I'm very much looking forward to talking with the vice president and to the president," Bush said before his departure from Austin, Texas.
"It's going to be, I'm confident, a memorable trip," he added.
Earlier in the day, Bush, who officially claimed the presidency on Wednesday after a 36-day legal battle over Florida votes, named three high-ranking members of his incoming administration.
In a long-anticipated move, he appointed Condoleezza Rice his national security advisor, marking the first time a woman has held that post.
Rice, 46, an academic and expert in Russian and Eastern European affairs, advised Bush throughout his campaign for president. She also served Bush's father, former president George Bush, on his National Security Council.
"Dr. Rice is not only a brilliant person. She is an experienced person. She is a good manager," the president-elect said here Sunday. "I trust her judgment."
Bush also named Texas Supreme Court Justice Alberto Gonzales, a Hispanic, as White House counsel, and campaign communications director Karen Hughes as counselor to the president.
Now that the trio has signed on to the administration, Bush said, "America will be better off."
In apparent reference to their diversity, Bush said the appointments "really explain what America can and should be about."
Rice is the second African American Bush has named to a top post in his administration: on Saturday, he nominated retired General Colin Powell as secretary of state.
Powell's cabinet-level nomination requires confirmation by the U.S. Senate, but the White House posts held by Rice, Gonzales and Hughes do not require legislative approval.
Bush became president-elect Wednesday after a five-week legal battle with Gore, his Democratic rival.
Some analysts have predicted a rough road ahead for the new president, since the vote was so close and contested, and the Congress is so evenly divided.
But in talk show appearances Sunday, Vice President-elect Richard Cheney signaled that the new administration would aggressively pursue policies outlined during the campaign.
"I simply don't buy the notion that somehow we come to office now as a quote, weakened president," Cheney said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
"The suggestion that somehow because this was a close election we should fundamentally change our beliefs I just think is silly," he said.
He said that Bush would "aggressively pursue" a $1.3 trillion tax cut and implied that he would veto a long-in-the-making campaign finance reform plan that has significant bipartisan support.
Democrats warned that the Bush's much-vaunted bipartisanship must be sincere, not just a show of "cherry-picking a few Democrats" to serve in the administration.
"We need to be inclusive. We need everybody at the table," said Richard Gephardt, minority leader in the House of Representatives, on NBC's "Meet the Press" show.
And Harry Reid, a top Democratic Senator, said the first thing Democrats want from the Bush administration "is to make sure there is power sharing."
"Cheney is in denial like the rest of the Republicans that the Senate is something other than equal," said Reid, speaking on CBS.
The 100 seats of the Senate are equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, and the House of Representatives has a slim nine-seat Republican majority.
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