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Subject: Next occupant accepts Oval Office invitation
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 14:51:51 EST
Message-ID: <news12.1992Nov12.145151@AmeriCast.com>

\SE A;NATION
\HD Next occupant accepts Oval Office invitation
\BY Paul Bedard and J.  Jennings Moss
\CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES

President-elect Bill Clinton will meet with President Bush, probably
late next week, to prepare for a smooth transition from 12 years of
Republican rule to the "new generation" of Democrats, White House and
Clinton aides said yesterday.

Mr.  Clinton also plans meetings with those at the other end of
Pennsylvania Avenue - on Sunday when top congressional Democrats travel to
Little Rock, Ark., and next week when he comes to Washington, where he is
expected to meet with other Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Mr.  Bush extended the invitation to Mr.  Clinton to meet in the Oval
Office in a telephone call early yesterday from Air Force One en route to a
Florida fishing vacation.

The two camps described the five-minute conversation, which included an
offer by Mrs.  Bush to entertain Hillary Clinton, as "very nice" and
"pleasant."

Mr.  Clinton said the president's call was "very statesmanlike."

While no exact date for the meeting had been announced, White House
Chief of Staff James A.  Baker III and Clinton transition chairman Vernon
Jordan met privately last night at Mr.  Baker's upper Northwest Washington
home to plan the meeting and transition, a White House spokesman said last
night.

A senior White House official said Mr.  Baker wants to assure Mr.
Jordan that the Bush administration will accommodate efforts to ease the
transition.  Mr.  Baker "will listen and see if he can work out the kind of
things Jordan wants" to grease the transition of power.

"The ball is clearly in their court," the White House official said.
"We want to respond and we want to cooperate."

Mr.  Clinton's planned meetings, along with a news conference scheduled
for today, reflect a new phase in the Arkansas governor's metamorphosis in
becoming president.  Mr.  Clinton has spent the past week mostly behind
closed doors, cloistered with top aides deciding who will be part of the
transition and how it will be accomplished.
Now the president-elect is signaling that the real job of forming a
government to assume power Jan.  20 has begun.

The session with reporters, the first since he defeated Mr.  Bush nine
days ago, will allow Mr.  Clinton to name the remaining members of his
transition team and spell out the timetable for other decisions, according
to Clinton aides.

Among those to get key spots in the transition will be campaign manager
David Wilhelm and communications director George Stephanopoulos, both of
whom will be the top deputies to transition director Warren Christopher, a
Clinton official said.  Campaign finance director Rahm Emanuel is expected
to be Mr.  Clinton's liaison for the inauguration.

When Mr.  Clinton talks with reporters today, one piece of business he
will not address is the strict ethical guidelines he will set for his
appointees, said Clinton spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers.

The transition office will release as early as tomorrow the details of
those rules, which are expected to include a lifetime prohibition on top
appointees from lobbying on behalf of foreign governments and a five-year
ban on the lobbying of their former federal departments.

The question of conflicts of interest already has surfaced.  Public
Citizen, a Washington-based public interest group, issued a letter
yesterday calling on Mr.  Clinton to promise not to appoint anyone who has
ties to the tobacco industry.  It singled out Mr.  Jordan, who sits on the
board of RJR Nabisco, and campaign chairman Mickey Kantor, whose Los
Angeles law firm sometimes represents Philip Morris Cos.

Asked if Mr.  Clinton would follow Public Citizen's advice, Mr.
Stephanopoulos said no.

"Governor Clinton is going to appoint the people who will best serve
the United States and best advance the goals of his administration," Mr.
Stephanopoulos said.


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