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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (261846)	6/7/2002 12:30:01 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Respond to of 769667

Bush abruptly shifts strategy TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer Thursday, June 6, 2002 (06-06) 22:40 PDT (AP) -- An AP News Analysis WASHINGTON (AP) -- It was a little like dominoes. Each new revelation about Sept. 11 intelligence failures added to more public anxiety and congressional inquisitiveness. That led, in turn, to an abrupt shift in gears by President Bush and an ambitious plan to revamp domestic defenses. The proposal for a new Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security, outlined by Bush Thursday night in an Oval Office address, was an attempt to seize back the initiative. A formal White House plan for an overhaul had not been expected until next fall. By moving now, administration officials hoped to pre-empt criticism later, end finger-pointing among agencies and blunt calls for a full-fledged independent inquiry into intelligence lapses. The initiative comes as polls show an increase in public worry over future terror attacks. The president's own approval ratings remain robust. Bush challenged Congress to put in place a single agency with "an overriding and urgent mission: securing the American homeland and protecting the American people." White House officials said he hoped to have it in place by Jan. 1. Because of Bush's earlier opposition to such an approach, the scope of the president's proposal surprised even some congressional advocates of a Cabinet-status department. His plan would create the second largest federal agency after the Pentagon, with 169,000 employees -- mostly drawn from existing agencies -- and a $37.4 billion budget. Bush said it was the biggest governmental reorganization since the creation of the present-day Defense Department and the CIA in 1947 during the Truman administration. Bush's midcourse change was a public acknowledgment that the existing structure and institutions are not working effectively. "The long-standing problems in the intelligence community have become far better understood at the top. And it's now a lot clearer that action needs to be taken," said Anthony Cordesman, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The new department would take over dozens of programs and agencies, from customs and immigration services to the Secret Service. It would leave intact the FBI and the CIA, but those agencies would have to share information with Homeland Security. White House officials denied that Bush's prime-time address was meant to divert attention from congressional hearings into intelligence failures. But the timing, on a day of televised Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, was not lost on political strategists of either party. "Why now? Because it was ready now," asserted White House chief of staff Andrew Card. "It's a bold plan, because the turf fighting among the different agencies and Congress is going to be intense," said veteran GOP consultant Charles Black. "People are going to think it's good leadership for him to try." While Democrats generally applauded the proposal, some were skeptical. Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., said the reorganization sounded as if it were "written on the back of an envelope." White House officials said it was actually developed over months, mostly in secrecy. The White House dropped its opposition to a Cabinet agency after recognizing that Bush's current homeland security adviser, Tom Ridge, had little authority. It also abandoned a strategy of lashing out at Democrats who criticized the administration's pre-Sept. 11 behavior. Few people seem to blame Bush for the intelligence miscues. But polls also show a considerable number -- more than four in 10 -- think White House officials could have done a better job with available information. Almost two-thirds think the CIA and FBI deserve some blame for the attacks. Republican strategists cite a general drop in the levels of trust in government, which soared in the months after the attacks. But they feel the public is more concerned about future security and what was learned from the experience. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., an early sponsor of Cabinet-status legislation, welcomed Bush's conversion. "You had embarrassing revelations in the papers, Congress moving on several fronts and I think a decision by the White House that it had to step up to this critically important issue," she said. The move can help inoculate the administration against criticism -- in the event of a new attack -- that it failed to learn from past mistakes, suggested Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. "It's pre-emptive. I think the decision was more driven by substance than by politics, but the two are interwoven," he said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EDITOR'S NOTE -- Tom Raum has reported on national and international affairs for The Associated Press since 1973.

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (261846)	6/7/2002 12:42:46 PM
From: goldworldnet	Respond to of 769667

Bush's pronunciation of nuclear is acceptable. Message 16621290 * * *