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 relaxes, set to begin transition Date: Mon, 9 Nov 92 14:59:57 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \HD Clinton relaxes, set to begin transition \BY Ronald A. Taylor \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT LITTLE ROCK, Ark. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - President-elect Bill Clinton appeared rested and upbeat yesterday as he faced a busy week ahead and transition aides spoke of an upcoming business summit here. In his first full workweek as president-elect, Mr. Clinton is expected to step up the pace of assembling his administration and sort out further details of the government he is to take over Jan. 20. Although transition sources here hinted broadly that key announcements are expected this week, Mr. Clinton predicted a deliberate, unhurried pace for the transition. "We're going to work very hard but not rush decisions," he said. Mr. Clinton, interviewed after a post-jog stop for coffee and water at McDonald's, refused to list his first appointments. "[That's] not anything I'm ready to say," he said. "It takes a while to sort of come down and build up." Clinton transition aides said they expect more appointments to the transition team this week but do not expect any Cabinet posts to be filled. They also said Mr. Clinton, fulfilling a campaign promise, is planning to hold a summit soon with business leaders, economists and others to discuss the country's economic woes and how best to address them. "I think it's fair to say that sometime very soon that the governor will convene in Little Rock business leaders, economists, a variety of people with expertise in the economy and international economy, to come and have a conversation," transition chairman Vernon Jordan said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It will be an attempt to make an audit of where we stand now," transition director Warren Christopher said on CBS's "Face the Nation." He added that Mr. Clinton plans to make room at the White House for a new council to coordinate international economic policy and help him deal with the economy. The council would coordinate the administration's economic policy but would not supersede the traditional role of the Treasury secretary and other economic advisers, Mr. Jordan said. Transition aides said a top priority is to name a Treasury secretary. Mr. Jordan said the president-elect may break with past policy and fill that post before naming a secretary of state, traditionally the first to be filled. Mr. Jordan said he hopes some of the top posts will be filled by the Thanksgiving holiday and "certainly" by Dec 1. Mr. Clinton yesterday dwelled on his recovery from the post-campaign fatigue that, he said, contributed to displays of irritability directed at aides and the media yesterday. "I'm rested now. The first two or three nights were really tough, you know," Mr. Clinton said. He said he was so exhausted at the end of the campaign that he couldn't even hold his concentration to read technical material. But yesterday he talked affably about the coming change in the life he and his family enjoy in this town of 175,00 people. "Chelsea's got a wonderful life here," he said. "We've got to figure out how to make sure this is a good thing for her." The seventh-grader is to remain in the public school she attends here through the Christmas holidays. He jogged on a zigzag route to McDonald's in a playful effort to frustrate photographers who had staked out what they believed to be his path. The prank contrasted with Saturday's glowering president-elect who snapped at a press aide when the photographers attempted to chronicle his first golf round in several months. Staff members said the brutal campaign pace, combined with a monthlong absence from Little Rock at the end, robbed the governor of the occasional home visit to recharge his batteries. Topic A for Mr. Clinton was decompression from the brutal pace of campaigning and recovery from vocal cord problems. On Saturday, he bolted from media scrutiny to play golf, and that evening he slipped away from the press to attend a movie. He also hinted that post-campaign exhaustion left him too tired to focus on the transition reading. "I've still got a lot of reading to do, I was so exhausted," he said. "I was so exhausted after the election I couldn't read very much for two days." "The way things are going I've got a notion there won't be a lot of vacations in that first year," he told reporters on a three-quarter-mile walk back to the governor's mansion yesterday from the McDonald's downtown. * This article is based in part on wire service reports. 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