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Bush Expected In Washington As Presidential Transition Shifts Into Gear
by Jim Mannion
WASHINGTON (AFP) - George W. Bush embarked on the formal transition to a new presidency Thursday under a shower of good wishes, but also admonitions to make good on his promise to heal the wounds of a rancorous election.
The Republican president-elect will be in Washington on Monday and Tuesday to meet with President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, his erstwhile Democratic rival for the White House, to discuss the handover of power after the most rancorous and divisive election in living memory.
"It will be a fairly intense period of time at the beginning of the week when he is here," said Bush's vice president-elect, Dick Cheney.
Cheney formally took the transition in hand Thursday when he received the keys to office space set aside in the capital for the incoming administration.
"We are delighted now to have the opportunity ... to begin to aggressively pursue what's going to clearly be an abbreviated but, we hope, a very successful transition," Cheney told a press conference in McLean, Virginia, the temporary transition site just outside the capital.
Bush is to meet Gore on Tuesday, and Cheney attached considerable importance to that first encounter of the rivals since their bitter presidential battle went into five weeks of acrimonious overtime.
In Austin, Texas, Bush began the day with prayers at a local church; only hours after Gore accepted defeat in a gracious concession speech and called on all Americans to unite behind their new president.
"Our nation must rise above a house divided," Bush responded in a victory address from the Texas state legislature late Wednesday that evoked U.S. founding father Thomas Jefferson, and emphasized bipartisanship and reconciliation after a bitter contested election settled by the U.S. Supreme Court.
A divided Congress - the new Senate is evenly split and Republicans hold only a slender majority in the House of Representatives - offers Bush a choice between pursuing a bipartisan agenda or facing almost certain legislative gridlock.
"Bipartisanship isn't an option any more. It is a requirement," said Senator Tom Daschle, the Democratic minority leader. "We must govern from the middle or we will not be able to govern at all."
The pressure was on Bush and Cheney to complete a transition that has been truncated by the 36-day legal fight for the presidency.
"We are going to move just as rapidly as we can," said Cheney. "We are going to do everything we can to get everyone named as quickly as possible."
Under normal circumstances, the presidential victor would have more than two months after the election to prepare for the transition. As a result of the Florida ballot dispute the president-elect has just 37 days to nominate his White House advisors, administrative staff, and lay out his legislative wish list as well as the 2002 federal budget.
Bush has already indicated he will quickly nominate his White House staff before working on other appointments. Some cabinet post could be announced as early as Friday.
The transition team has 6,000 appointments to make, and 21,000 job applications to sift through.
Congratulations poured in from leaders around the world who noted the challenges that await the new Republican administration in the Middle East, Asia and Europe.
From Britain, outgoing President Bill Clinton who has pledged to help speed the transition, urged the American people to put the "rancor" of the election wrangle behind them and support President-elect Bush.
Speaking from Chequers, the official country home of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Clinton praised Gore for the manner in which he had accepted defeat.
"He spoke for all of us last night, he did it eloquently and well and President-elect Bush responded with generosity in kind," said Clinton, who formally leaves office when his successor is inaugurated January 20.
Blair spoke by telephone with Bush, a Downing Street spokesman said. Offering his "warmest congratulations," the British prime minister said: "I'm glad it is finally settled. I know that together we will strengthen still further the special friendship between Britain and the United States."
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his message of congratulations from Havana, where he was visiting Cuban President Fidel Castro. He expressed hopes for deeper U.S.-Russian cooperation.
France's Prime Minister Lionel Jospin offered Bush "best wishes" but sounded a dubious note in comments to reporters, saying he found the outcome "a little surprising."
"There was no recount in Florida, so there will always be an uncertainty," Jospin said.
Among the first world leaders to congratulate Bush on winning the White House were Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Philippine President Joseph Estrada.
Bush will be formally elected Monday by the Electoral College. Florida's 25 electoral votes gives Bush 271 electoral votes - one more than the total needed to win the presidency.
Gore, who won the overall popular vote by more than 300,000 ballots, but lost Florida by 537 votes, will end up the loser with 267 electoral votes.
Gore's running mate, Senator Joe Lieberman, recited a psalm on the Senate floor to suggest there may still be a political afterlife for Gore.
"Today, as some of us weep for what could have been, we look to the future with faith that on another morning joy will surely come," he said.
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