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Saturday Morning News

Bush Makes Up for Lost Time with More Cabinet Appointments

Aired December 16, 2000 - 8:00 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin now with the new administration, with five weeks spent in political limbo, President- elect George W. Bush is scrambling to make up for some lost time. Today, he is expected to make the first of his Cabinet nominations with a man already linked to the name George Bush.

CNN's Tony Clark has been covering the president-elect for us in Austin and he joins us now live.

Good morning, Tony.

TONY CLARK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

You know, that's one of the important things that I think the Bush campaign is trying to do is to reassure with the nomination of Colin Powell to be Secretary of State. In about 15 minutes, President-elect and Mrs. Bush will leave the Governor's mansion, drive the hour and a half, two hours to their ranch at Crawford, Texas and there they will meet up with Powell and running mate Dick Cheney for the announcement that's expected to be made around 12:30 today.

It is the first cabinet appointment to be made by the president- elect and it is no surprise. Colin Powell, 63 years old, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under both President Bush and President Clinton. He has been an adviser, an aide, a campaigner for George W. Bush and his name has been long mentioned for a key spot in the Bush administration.

One other announcement is expected to come tomorrow and that may be the announcement of Al Gonzalez as White House counsel. Gonzalez also has ties to President-elect Bush. He was Secretary of State, he was General Counsel to then Governor Bush and also on the State Supreme Court in Texas. He's expected to be named the White House Counsel.

Also possibly to be named tomorrow, Condoleezza Rice. Now, she is another name that has been hinted at for several weeks. She is an international policy adviser to Bush during the campaign. She was on the National Security Council of President Bush. She's a former Stanford University provost, an expert, a specialist in Russian studies and so she is expected to be named National Security Adviser.

In the meantime, the Bush campaign trying to fill some 6,000 jobs, many of them, more than 1,000 of them requiring Senate confirmation. They've set up their transition office in McClean, Virginia. There they are getting resumes, about 20,000 resumes e- mailed to them. Warning potential candidates for the Bush administration that they're going to face all types of investigations, whether it's FBI investigation, financial disclosure, ethics disclosure, the FBI saying it's prepared to help facilitate that. But Dick Cheney, the man who is overseeing the transition, says, you know, because of the delays, because of the contest that went on in Florida, the transition time is so short they're not going to be able to have all of their picks in place by Christmas, which had been the goal. But they will be ready to hit the ground running on January 20th, the start of the new administration.

So much to do, so very little time to do it. As I say, the Governor -- former Governor almost, we now refer to him as president- elect and we've, I've had some problems and some of the staff has had some problems in remembering to refer to Mr. Bush as President-elect Bush. We're so used to calling him Governor Bush. They will be at the ranch today, tomorrow, leave for Washington, D.C. on Sunday night and then in Washington, D.C. the president-elect will meet with Congressional leaders, with President Clinton and Vice President Gore.

So much to do. Miles?

O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Tony Clark live from Austin, thanks very much -- Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: One thing seems certain to come out of this presidential election, a much keener awareness of the electoral process. Many Americans will likely watch with heightened interest Monday when the Electoral College conducts the real vote for the president.

Here's CNN's Garrick Utley with Electoral College 101.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the way it's been done for more than 200 years, the electoral votes brought before the U.S. Senate to formally elect the president.

AL GORE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Bill Clinton, of the State of Arkansas, has received for President of the United States 379 votes.

UTLEY: Is this the best way to choose a president or the worst?

(on camera): Or is it both? Here are some arguments for doing away with the way we elect a president, and arguments for keeping it.

(voice-over): One criticism of those who created the constitution is that they gave more electoral votes to small states than their populations alone would warrant, since even the smallest states have at least three votes.

We asked a leading specialist on the Electoral College to explain both sides of the case. PROF. DAVID EPSTEIN, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Why should they get this bonus? Why should the eight smallest states with 25 electoral, get 25 electoral votes the same as Florida, whereas they have only one sixth of the population?

UTLEY: The answer?

EPSTEIN: Back then they needed all 13 states to unanimously ratify this new constitution, so they had to get the small states to go along.

UTLEY: Then there is the argument that the electoral vote system encourages stable government by encouraging the two major parties to move to the center, to win a majority of the electoral votes.

EPSTEIN: And they have to gain 51 percent of the vote, which means they have to not just get some radical wing, but they have to capture the median voter.

UTLEY: But what about those who believe in a third party candidate?

EPSTEIN: They're going to look at the two candidates and say gee, neither of these really represents my views, why am I being forced to either vote for one of these two or "waste" my vote on a minor party candidate?

UTLEY (on camera): Of course, the strongest argument for electing a president directly in a truly national election is that he or she will be elected directly by the people.

(voice-over): Under that system, Al Gore would be preparing for his presidency. But what if his opponent, trailing by only 337,000 votes among 100 million cast, called for a recount?

EPSTEIN: You're going to have to recount every state, every county, every precinct. It's going to be Florida to the 50th power.

UTLEY: The framers of the constitution did not know of dimpled ballots or the legal complexities of recounts. But they did provide the possibility of changing how we elect the president by changing the constitution, if we the people want to.

Garrick Utley, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: CNN plans extensive live coverage of the Electoral College events around the country on Monday. We'll report all the details as each state announces which candidate gets their electoral vote.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

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