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Subject: Clinton Names Riley to Personnel Post; Ex-South Carolina Governor to Fill Jobs
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 04:53:56 EST
Message-ID: <29.1992Nov18.045356@AmeriCast.com>

Clinton Names Riley to Personnel Post; Ex-South Carolina Governor
to Fill Jobs Below Cabinet Level<By Ruth Marcus=Washington Post
Staff Writer=

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Nov. 17 - President-elect Clinton today tapped
former South Carolina governor Richard Riley to oversee personnel
selection for political posts beneath the Cabinet level, a move
the campaign said makes good Clinton's pledge to look outside
Washington for talent for his transition team.

Riley, who became close to Clinton during his two terms as a fel-
low southern governor, said his concern was "to make sure that we
don't have a gridlock in the executive department of government."
Transition director Warren M.  Christopher said Riley's selection
makes the transition hierarchy "largely in place."

The announcement of Riley came on a day when Clinton met with his
transition board to discuss the new government and the
president-elect prepared to leave for Washington Wednesday to
meet with President Bush.  Clinton's economic advisers convened
here to begin translating Clinton's campaign economic plan into
legislation and budgets.

Harvard professor Robert Reich, the transition's director for
economic policy, said in an interview after the daylong meeting
of economic advisers that he divided up responsibility for "exa-
mining various initiatives so that President-elect Clinton is in
the position to start to make strategic budget decisions by the
end of December."

He said advisers were assigned to such major issues as short-term
economic recovery; infrastructure and military conversion; educa-
tion and training; technology and manufacturing, including small
business; trade and international direct investment; urban
development, and health care. He said others were tasked "to take
a hard look at the baseline, that is, what the 1993 and 1994
budget deficits are likely to be."

Reich, expanding on a concern to which Clinton alluded during his
news conference, said, "It's critical to be absolutely confident
in the quality of those data and we'd be irresponsible simply to
take them at their face from the administration." Reich em-
phasized that although he had no hard evidence, "All I can say is
on the basis of discrete conversations I've had with experts in
the field and a chill in my bones I'm just a tad bit worried that
the deficit figures might be worse for '93 and '94 than has been
publicized."

Although Riley has been widely rumored as a possible choice for
an important administration position, he declared that he was
"not a candidate for any job or post."

But he said nothing to indicate he would not be interested in a
position. Clinton, and speaking to reporters later said, "The
work that he has to do in helping us fill out these departments
may not be completely done on January 20 . . . so his job may re-
quire him to be part of the administration." Riley, 59, was
governor of South Carolina from 1979 to 1987, active in the Na-
tional Governors' Association and noted for education reform and
environmental work. Since leaving office, he has worked as a
lawyer for the state's largest law firm and been active on the
National Commission to Prevent Infant Mortality.

Clinton aide Bruce Reed said Riley "brings a new perspective and
a new Rolodex" and "has demonstrated over the years that he is a
different kind of Democrat and he can help Clinton put together a
different kind of administration."

Clinton said that in his meeting with Bush, which is scheduled
for 55 minutes, he wants to discuss "some issues specifically in-
volving the transition" as well as obtain Bush's "candid assess-
ment of some world issues, some problems that I'll be facing at
the beginning of my term." Christopher and transition chairman
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. will meet with Transportation Secretary An-
drew H. Card Jr., who has been designated as the Bush
administration's transition contact, during the meeting between
the president-elect and the outgoing president.

As Clinton met with his transition board at the governor's man-
sion this afternoon, his wife, Hillary, who was an active parti-
cipant in his dinner with the Democratic congressional leadership
Sunday night, sat in along with Vice President-elect Gore. "We
just sort of sit out here around this table every day and talk.
She's part of it," Clinton said of his wife's role.

Christopher said the transition board examined lists of potential
members for the 10 "cluster groups" that will be based in Wash-
ington and will be responsible for burrowing into various govern-
ment agencies. He said the board also discussed the economic re-
treat that Clinton has said he will convene. In filling the sub-
cabinet positions, Christopher said, Clinton wants to have a
"cooperative process" in which neither the White House nor the
Cabinet secretary has complete say over who is appointed to posts
within the department. That is a departure from both the Carter
administration, when such decisions were ceded to Cabinet members
and the Reagan administration, when the White House retained con-
trol. "It's Governor Clinton's intention to have this be a
cooperative process, one in which there would be a mutual en-
deavor to make these selections rather than choosing either one
of the polar extremes," Christopher said.

Clinton communications director George Stephanopoulos said the
economic advisers were trying to "get a complete survey of the
general budget and the state of the economy at this point, trying
to review Governor Clinton's plans and . . .  prepare options for
him so he can decide in late December and in January as the time
comes" for submitting a budget.

The participants at the economic meeting were an eclectic group
that included non-economists and reflected the interdependence of
other issues like health policy and foreign affairs with the
economy.

They were Roger Altman, a partner in a New York investment bank-
ing firm and a treasury official during the Carter administra-
tion; Barry Carter, a Georgetown University law professor who has
been advising Clinton on foreign affairs and trade issues; Leti-
tia Chambers, a consultant with expertise in budgeting; Christo-
pher Edley, a Harvard Law School professor who was issues direc-
tor for the Michael S. Dukakis campaign; Georgetown University
professor Judith Feder, who is directing Clinton's health care
transition planning.

Also, Reed Hundt, lawyer who has been a Gore adviser; Ira Maga-
ziner, an independent business consultant and long-time Clinton
friend; Goldman-Sachs Co-chairman Robert Rubin; Robert Shapiro of
the Progressive Policy Institute; Lawrence Summers, on leave from
Harvard to serve as chief economist of the World Bank; Laura Ty-
son, a trade expert at the University of California at Berkeley;
Washington lawyer Harrison Wellford, a transition adviser and
budget official under Carter, and Michael Wessel, general counsel
to House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.).<02:21 11-
18C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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