Bush Picks Pentagon Chief
Thursday, December 28, 2000
By John P. Martin
WASHINGTON — President-elect Bush named former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as his choice to return to the Pentagon on Thursday, tapping a Washington veteran who served Presidents Ford and Nixon and has remained a staunch advocate of improving the country's missile defense.
"This is a man who has got great judgment. He has got strong vision and he's going to be a great secretary of defense — again," Bush said as he introduced the nominee at his transition offices.
Rumsfeld, 68, said he looks forward "to serving our country again" and said he admired Bush's leadership skills and plans to improve the military. "It is clearly not a time at the Pentagon for presiding or calibrating modestly," he said.
The news potentially ends the search to fill the last major cabinet post left unfilled in a Bush administration and countered speculation that former Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., was a shoo-in for the job. Rumsfeld emerged in news reports as a potential administration appointee only this week, but as a candidate for the post of CIA director.
Bush insisted that choosing his defense secretary was neither a struggle nor slow. "I felt like we were making pretty good progress," he said. Bush is expected to announce more nominees Friday before returning to Texas for the holiday weekend.
Rumsfeld served seven years as an Illinois congressman before becoming a Nixon adviser and U.S. Ambassador to NATO. Under Ford, he served both as defense secretary and as White House chief of staff, a job later held by Dick Cheney, the vice president-elect.
After leaving public office, Rumsfeld spent 17 years in the private sector, as an investment banker and corporate CEO, both at G.D Searle & Co. and at General Instrument Corp.
But he kept ties both to the military world and Washington. He served as a special Middle East envoy for President Reagan, worked on a deficit reduction commission under President Bush and two years ago chaired a congressional commission to assess the ballistic missile threat against the United States.
That panel faulted the readiness of U.S. missile defenses, concluding that the country is likely to have "little or no warning" about threats from rogue nations.
"I felt he did an extraordinary job with a delicate assignment," Bush said. "He brought people together to understand the realities of the modern world."
Part of Rumsfeld's job, Bush said, will be to help sell his plan for an anti-ballistic missile system.
The appointment rounds out a national security team stocked with veterans from previous GOP administrations, a move to counter Bush's lack of foreign policy experience. Rumsfeld and Cheney, himself a former defense secretary, join Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell and likely national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, who both served Bush's father.
"I've assembled a team of very strong smart people, and I look forward to hearing their advice," Bush said.
Bush insisted that each will share equal roles. Asked how much influence Powell or Cheney would have over the Pentagon, Bush replied: "I think little, because I picked a strong leader who is willing to listen to others, but it's a decisive leader."
His priorities will be clear, the president-elect said: Strengthen the bond between the president and U.S. troops, defend against missiles and terrorism, and prepare the military for the next century. Bush said a top-to-bottom review of the military is in order, and he expects to win a $1 billion pay raise for troops.
Asked about gays in the military, Rumsfeld said it's not an area he has discussed with the new president or considered on his own, adding, "Certainly the priorities are in other areas for me."
Bush was expected to spend the rest of the day in private meetings, possibly to help narrow his choices for the other remaining slots. Still unfilled are the top jobs at the departments of education, energy, the interior, transportation, health and human services, labor and veterans affairs.
Bush said he would have another announcement on Friday. Republican sources said that would include the nomination of Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson to be secretary of Health and Human Services.
Republican sources in Texas said Houston Independent School District Superintendent Rod Paige had emerged as a finalist for Education Secretary and could be in Washington for a news conference as early as Friday.
Asked about the role for Democrats in his administration, Bush quipped, "I'm not having any trouble getting Democrats to return my phone calls," but said most he has approached want to stay in their current posts.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report
foxnews.com |
