Mr Bush comes to Washington on a `reach-out' mission

Mr Bush comes to Washington on a `reach-out' mission
Chidanand Rajghatta

WASHINGTON, DEC 18: President -elect George W. Bush, who has seldom come to the nation's capital in recent years much less stepped outside the country, made his first post-election foray into Washington on Monday to meet with the country's movers and shakers while giving shape to his own team.

Bush's first stop was breakfast with the reigning God of the US economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, amid scary signs of a recession in theAmerican economy presaged by the downslide in such bellwether stocks as Microsoft. He is also meeting with leaders of the Congress on Capitol Hill latertoday.

The US media uniformly headlined the story ``Mr. Bush Comes to Washington'', invoking Frank Capra's 1939 classic film Mr Smith Goes to Washington. In thepolitical cult-movie that garnered eleven Oscar nominations, James Stewart plays a naive, idealist politician who comes to the capital and fightschicanery and evil while maturing in wisdom and guarding core American values of freedom and democracy.

The only thing the President-elect appeared to be guarding against on Monday was any public flubs. Following his meeting with Greenspan, Bush said, ``Italked with a good man right here. We had a very strong discussion about my confidence in his abilities.''

Bush is expected to meet President Clinton at the White House tomorrow and also call on Al Gore, the man he edged out to become the country's 43rd President. His wife, Laura, is having tea with First Lady and Senator-elect Hillary Clinton on Monday.

Earlier on Sunday, Bush expectedly announced the name of Stanford academic Condoleeza Rice to be his National Security Advisor. Over the last severalmonths, Rice has been the foreign policy tutor for Bush, whose only foreign trips have been to Mexico and who is believed to be so insular that he has neverleft American shores.

In a bid to broadbase the Republican Party and reach out to the minorities, Bush also named Texas Supreme Court Justice Al Gonzales, a Hispanic, as White Housecounsel. Rice and the presumptive-Secretary of State Colin Powell, are African-Americans.

While Bush homed into Washington, America's electoral college met in various state capitals to formally elect him as the next president.

Typically, the 538 electors meet in pro-forma sessions with the result a foregone conclusion. But because of the nature of this close and bitterly foughtelections, all eyes were peeled to see if there would be any potential defectors from the 271 electors Bush has won. Even a change over of three electors coulddefeat him.

But his court-conquered rival, Al Gore, has precluded such a possibility by saying he will not countenance it. The Bush camp was confident the electors wouldvote along expected lines.

Bush's foreign policy moves have attracted a great deal of scrutiny among Washington's expansive punditocracy and diplomatic corps. A self-confessed neophyte in international affairs, he has put together a powerful, high-profile team and experts are now trying to figure out the dynamics of this team.

Typically, the National Security Advisor runs what virtually amounts to a private White House foreign policy fiefdom and formulates broad policy strokes arising from proximity to the President. The secretary of state handles the nitty-gritty of administering and implementing the policy.

The scenario is somewhat similar to New Delhi's current dynamic between the Principal Secretary/ National Security Advisor and the External Affairs Minister. ccasionally, the same man has held both posts for a while, notably Henry Kissinger under Gerald Ford.

But in many administrations, the secretary of state has an overriding position. In this case, Colin Powell, who was already the NSA under Ronald Reagan, could pull rank. There is also the added angle of a vice-president who is a former defense secretary and a foreign policy expert in his own right.

The President-elect does not appear to be worried about surrounding himself with foreign policy heavyweights. What everyone is watching for is whetherand how he will handle contrarian opinion and conflicting advise.