Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Clinton picks insiders to lead transition Date: Sat, 7 Nov 92 19:23:58 EST Message-ID: \SE A \HD Clinton picks insiders to lead transition \BY Ronald A. Taylor \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT LITTLE ROCK, Ark. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - President-elect Bill Clinton yesterday named two veteran Washington insiders - Vernon Jordan and Warren Christopher - to lead an ethnically diverse White House transition team. "The American people could have no better servants working on their behalf," Mr. Clinton said in a statement. Mr. Clinton chose Mr. Jordan, a Washington-based lawyer and former National Urban League president, to be chairman of the Clinton-Gore transition board. "If you look at me, if you think about my past experience . . . I think you can rest assured that we will have a diverse transition," Mr. Jordan said, stressing his commitment to recruit minorities and women for high-level Clinton administration positions. Mr. Christopher, a Los Angeles lawyer and veteran of Democratic administrations dating to John F. Kennedy, was tapped to be the Arkansas-based transition director. "I expect to have the day-to-day operational control," said Mr. Christopher, who was a deputy secretary of state under President Carter, a deputy attorney general under President Johnson and a trade negotiator under President Kennedy. The transition leaders worked together on the selection of Vice President-elect Al Gore, and Mr. Christopher said their selection would emphasize diversity and "try to recreate the kind of process we had for the vice presidential selection." The actions were the first official steps toward shifting command of the government from President Bush to Mr. Clinton, who is still nursing ailing vocal chords from the grueling campaign for the White House. Mr. Christopher said the first order of business will be to zero in on the economy. He declined to set a timetable or to list what he believed the first appointments would be. Mr. Christopher took himself out of the running for any Clinton administration posts. "I think it gives a considerably greater assurance of objectivity if in playing a role in helping to select a Cabinet and trying to provide information to Governor Clinton and Senator Gore that I myself would not be involved in that process" as a potential officeholder, said Mr. Christopher. The move also signals an effort to fulfill a campaign pledge for an administration drawn from many ethnic quarters. "The composition of the [transition] board is meant to emphasize diversity, and I think you'll see as we put together our staff and we make our selections that this will carry out Governor Clinton's desire that his administration look like America," Mr. Christopher said. The two men came from the transition planning board set up in September that includes campaign chairman Mickey Kantor, former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, former Vermont Gov. Madeleine Kunin and Thomas "Mac" McLarty, chairman of Arkla, the dominant natural gas company here. Yesterday's action also gives some post-election shape to the Clinton organization, which, in the giddiness of victory and jostling for position by ambitious staffers and outsiders, had seen its level of productive activity plummet amid infighting. Clinton spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers and communications director George Stephanopoulos had downplayed the intense squabbling that had been going on in the past few days. But staffers said privately that only a few people within the Clinton inner sanctum of advisers knew what was going on. As a result, they said, decisions were not being made and policy was not being communicated. As an example, they pointed out that the Clinton public information machinery, which operated at high gear during the campaign to counterattack opposition charges, was caught with nothing to say - and no forum in which to say it - when Russian President Boris Yeltsin briefed the world on foreign initiatives brought up in his chat with Mr. Clinton Thursday. What the president-elect had characterized as a simple get-acquainted talk, Mr. Yeltsin described as a chance to advance key items on the Russian policy agenda, including the invitation to a post-inaugural summit in Russia. Yesterday's announcement begins a feverish two-month process of filling Cabinet and other critical posts, setting up the administrative and bureaucratic machinery for implementing the Clinton program and for pinpointing potential trouble spots ahead for the incoming administration. Clinton officials said the naming of Mr. Jordan and Mr. Christopher suggested tougher prohibitions on officials capitalizing unethically on their government experience and contacts once they leave the administration. Mr. Clinton has said he would require members of his administration to meet tougher restrictions than the existing Ethics in Government Act requires. Mr. Christopher also hinted at sweeping changes ahead for the Civil Service ranks. "He also wants us to take a look at any structural changes that might be necessary in order to carry out the commitments he has made in the course of the campaign," he said. Mr. Christopher noted that the transition board will help set up the economic council Mr. Clinton called for during the campaign. That unit, Mr. Christopher said, would have "new and stronger duties" than the existing Council of Economic Advisers. The two men at the helm of the transition organization reflect the links inside Washington that Mr. Clinton has cultivated over the years. Mr. Jordan, 57, a senior partner in the Washington law firm of Akin, Gump, Hauer and Feld and former president of the United Negro College Fund, is a member of scores of influential foundations and corporate boards and wields immense power within the Democratic Party and in Washington legislative circles. Mr. Christopher, 67, was a key member of the Carter administration and, as deputy secretary of state, played a crucial role in negotiating the release of U.S. hostages from Iran in 1981. He is chairman of the Los Angeles-based, 500-lawyer law firm of O'Melveny and Myers. He headed the independent Christopher Commission that investigated the Los Angeles Police Department in the aftermath of the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King by police officers that led to rioting. ****PHOTO/BOX A VERNON E. JORDAN JR. Chairman of President-elect Bill Clinton's transition board Born: Atlanta, Aug. 15, 1935 Age: 57 Family: Married Ann Dibble Cook, Nov. 22, 1986. One daughter from a previous marriage. Education: Bachelor's degree, DePauw University, 1957. Law degree, Howard University, 1960. Career highlights: Law practice, Atlanta, 1960-61. Georgia field director, NAACP, 1961-63. Law practice, Pine Bluff, Ark., 1964-65. Director, Voter Education Project Southern Regional Council, 1964-68. Lawyer, Office of Economic Opportunity, Atlanta, 1969. Executive director, United Negro College Fund, 1970-71. President, National Urban League, 1972-81. Partner, law firm Akin, Gump, Hauer & Feld, Washington, 1981-present. Other: Member, National Advisory Commission on Selective Service, 1966-67; American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, 1972-present. Presidential Clemency Board, 1974. Board of directors, Brookings Institution, 1985. Fellow, Harvard Institute for Politics, 1969. Source: Who's Who in America, 1992 ****PHOTO/BOX B WARREN CHRISTOPHER Director of President-elect Bill Clinton's transition board Born: Scranton, N.D., Oct. 27, 1925 Age: 67 Family: Married Marie Josephine Willis on Dec. 21, 1956. Four children. Education: Attended University of Redlands, 1942-43. Bachelor's degree, University of Southern California, 1945. Law degree, Stanford University, 1949. Career highlights: Law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, 1949-50. Lawyer, O'Melveny & Myers, Los Angeles, 1950-57. Partner, O'Melveny & Myers, 1958-67, 1969-76, 1981-present. Deputy U.S. attorney general, 1967-69. Deputy secretary of state, 1977-81. Other: Vice chairman, Governor's Commission on L.A. Riots, 1965-66. Chairman, U.S. delegations to U.S.-Japan Cotton Textile Negotiations, 1961. Special representative to the secretary of state for the Wool Textile Meetings, London, Rome, Tokyo, 1964-65. Member, Trilateral Commission, 1975-77, 1981-88. Chairman, Independent Commission on L.A. Police Department, 1991. Trustee, Stanford University, 1973-77, 1981-present. Source: Who's Who in America, 1992 This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM