Bush's emphasis on energy in meeting with senators is interesting, as is his comment on nuclear power. Following is an excerpt from a long Peggy Noonan article:
As for meetings, a case in point was this Monday's 9 a.m. gathering in Trent Lott's office between Mr. Bush and the Senate Republican leadership--Don Nickles of Oklahoma, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, Larry Craig of Idaho, Bill Frist of Tennessee, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, along with some 20 Senate staffers and a handful of Bush aides.
It was the first time Mr. Bush had met with all of them in the Capitol, and the first time as president-elect. In the 40-minute meeting Mr. Bush was "relaxed, gracious, and lighthearted" in the words of one participant.
He knew what he wanted to say, and he said it. He began by telling them that not only is he president-elect but he is absolutely convinced that he won the presidential race. He said that having won the race he means to carry out his program. "It wasn't rhetoric," the participant quoted him. Mr. Bush said he wanted to move forward on the issues he'd campaigned on: a real across-the-board tax cut with rate reductions for everyone, Social Security reform, Medicare reform and education reform. Mr. Bush went on to say, again according to the participant, "There are two things that I think we need to deal with right up front--the first, the energy crisis, both short term and long term. And the other is the state of our national defenses.' " He said may be time to take another look at nuclear power.
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