Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.wpost From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: No subject Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 04:29:59 EST Message-ID: <41.1992Oct29.042959@AmeriCast.com> Clinton Transition Team Ready To Hit the Ground Running< By Barton Gellman and Dan Balz< Washington Post Staff Writers= Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, though anxious to avoid un- timely claims on the White House, is busily engaged in transition planning in anticipation of a possible victory in Tuesday's elec- tion. Housed in a Little Rock, Ark., office building a few blocks from campaign headquarters, the team has spent much of the autumn gathering information on past presidential transitions and preparing a series of briefing books for delivery to Clinton on Wednesday. The briefing books contain proposals for structuring a full-blown transition effort and substantive agendas on dozens of policy subjects. Clinton advisers are skittish about discussing what one called "the t-word," fearing that voters will punish them if they make premature assumptions about the outcome of the presidential elec- tion. The team's modest letterhead says only "CGPTPF," which stands for Clinton-Gore Pre-Transition Planning Foundation. The foundation is chaired by a five-member board consisting of campaign chairman Mickey Kantor, a Los Angeles lawyer; former San Antonio mayor Henry Cisneros; Warren Christopher, a Los Angeles lawyer who was acting secretary of state under Jimmy Carter; Madeleine Kunin, the former governor of Vermont; and Vernon Jordan, a Washington lawyer and civil rights leader. The last three directed Clinton's vice presidential search committee. Gerald Stern, on leave from his job as executive vice president and senior general counsel at Occidental Petroleum Corp. in Los Angeles, heads the day to-day operations. He is assisted by Wash- ington lawyer John Hart, who moved over from the campaign earlier in the fall and has been holding meetings with with various groups in Washington for several weeks. There are 10 to 15 people working full time in Little Rock. Campaign officials, attempting to play down the transition plan- ning, said most of their effort has been devoted to establishment of a process Clinton feels comfortable with, rather than to per- sonnel or policy recommendations. But their effort has gone well beyond process, according to other sources. For example, Georgetown University Law Professor Barry Carter, a defense and arms control expert, is heading a national security transition planning effort and issued a memorandum late last week soliciting input from a broad range of formal and informal Clin- ton advisers. Carter faxed requests for memos - due last Monday - on subjects ranging from regional (Russia, Bosnia, Middle East) to functional (arms control, human rights). He asked each author to provide a tightly written summary of two or three pages on the key issues, policy options, questions to ask the executive branch. "What is the urgency of the various issues?"