-Caveat Lector- http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/24/politics/24BUSH.html?pagewanted=all December 24, 2000 REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK Bush Waits, Politely, to Undo What Clinton Has Done By DAVID E. SANGER AUSTIN, Tex., Dec. 23 ó By road, it's a little more than 1,500 miles between the Governor's Mansion here and the White House. That's too far to spit. Mere distance, however, is not stopping anyone from trying. Just before they pack their bags, President Clinton's aides are taking one last shot at creating an America in their image ó churning out new emission rules for cars and trucks, reviewing last-minute authorizations for national monuments, putting the final touches on Mr. Clinton's effort to make sure that development stops in roadless areas of national forests. All this has left the Bush folks fuming, because they know ó or their lawyers are telling them ó that the rules cannot be wiped out at the stroke of a pen. There must be hearings and committees. Mr. Clinton's chief of staff, John D. Podesta, whose passion is environmentalism, noted this fact a year ago when he stood atop a Virginia mountain with Mr. Clinton, who was announcing his plan to save millions of acres of federal land from the intrusion of new logging roads. "Reversing this kind of stuff," Mr. Podesta said at the time, "is politically difficult, and a bureaucratic nightmare." President-elect George W. Bush is going out of his way not to pick a fight, telling everyone that as long as Mr. Clinton is president, he should do "what he's got to do," and when Mr. Bush moves in, he will worry about it then. "There's going to be a lot of opportunities, obviously, during the transition for me and the vice president or any of my designees to look backwards, but we're not going to do that," Mr. Bush said on Friday. "Our job is to ó once I'm sworn in and these members of my cabinet are sworn in ó is to look forward, is to think about the future." But his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, told reporters that executive orders might be undone with reverse executive orders, and "regulations can be undone through regulation." And of course, Mr. Bush's greatest weapon is also Washington's oldest art: footdragging. Not all the barbs, however, are coming from the White House. Mr. Bush arched his eyebrows more than once when describing Senator John Ashcroft's qualifications for attorney general. Mr. Bush stretched out the word "in-teg-rity" more than once, to let it settle in. He worked the facial expressions again when he suggested Mr. Ashcroft's Justice Department would "follow the truth." But the first real conflict between the Clintonites and the Bushies may have nothing to do with forests or justice. It will focus on license plates ó the plates on the presidential limousine. Mr. Clinton this week authorized the placement of the District of Columbia's new plate, with the slogan "Taxation without Representation," on the presidential limousine. The plate was created by the city to protest the fact that residents are not represented by a voting member of Congress. Republican sympathies for the District are limited; after all, the District is a Democratic bastion and gave Al Gore 85 percent of its vote. With the Senate split 50-50, Republicans are not terribly interested in statehood for the District, which would certainly add two Democrats to the upper body. Jake Siewert, the White House press secretary, insisted that the president was making his own statement, and that the next president was free to put anything on his car that he liked. "We're not tying anyone's hands," Mr. Siewert told reporters. "Screwdrivers are a dime a dozen." Whose Recession? The backbiting has been fiercest over what kind of economy Mr. Bush is inheriting. When Mr. Clinton's troops arrived in 1993, they went to some lengths to describe the "mess" that George H. W. Bush had left them, to make any recovery sound all the grander. What goes around comes around. Vice President-elect Dick Cheney started it, talking about how the country might be slipping into recession. Mr. Bush picked up the theme, then sat in the Oval Office the other day while Mr. Clinton recited the opinions of 49 of 50 leading economists who think growth next year will be around 2.5 percent ó nothing to write home about, but hardly a recession. No sooner was Mr. Bush finished with the tour of his new home than Gene Sperling, head of the National Economic Council (an institution Mr. Bush may kill off or reinvent), started telling reporters about the danger of undermining confidence in the economy by talking it down. Mr. Bush's aides, he said, were wrong on the facts, and unwise as they talked to the markets. Mr. Bush pulled back a bit on Friday. "I keep hearing talks about, you know, well, this is an administration that is trying to talk down the economy," he said. "That's foolish talk. All of us in the Bush administration will want the economy to be strong. But there are some clear warning signs, warning signs that will require what we believe is important action in the halls of Congress, such as tax relief." Most important, Mr. Bush appears to have learned early a lesson Mr. Clinton learned the hard way: Never, ever talk about whether you favor a strong dollar or a weak dollar. Mr. Clinton once opined about exchanged rates a little more than a year into his presidency, and touched off a mini- panic among currency traders and presidential aides. Mr. Bush, asked about the dollar on Friday, just ignored the question ó either because he knew enough not to answer, or not enough to know how to answer. Lots of Fish. No Chad. After all that's happened over the last month, you might think that the last place Mr. Bush wanted to go for relaxation was Florida. You would be wrong. On Tuesday, Mr. Bush and his family will head to Boca Grande, an island off the Florida coast known for fishing, golfing, wealthy winter residents ó and no recounts. Truly Domestic Policy With the long election and post- election battle over, Mr. Bush's staff can now focus on the big questions for January. A new approach to ousting Saddam? How about some innovative reforms for Medicare? "First things first," one of Mr. Bush's most senior advisers said this week. "I need a place to live. Warmer than a tent on Lafayette Park. Cheaper than a Victorian in Cleveland Park," one of the city's most tony neighborhoods. It's not easy. The rental market in Washington is tighter than ever. Whatever else happened during Mr. Clinton's tenure in Washington, home prices soared. So now when Mr. Bush's aides complain about Washington, they're not talking about the city that overregulates, that intrudes in the life of the citizenry and sees their death as another opportunity to tax. Instead, they are complaining that the place is too expensive for anyone on a government salary. It has clearly affected the Bush camp's internal discussions. One longtime Washingtonian discussed this week for a senior national security job joked that his main qualification was that "I already have a house." Then there is Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's political mastermind, who lives on a lovely piece of property in Austin that he bought for a pittance 30 years ago, and that he plans to keep because nothing in Washington is forever. As everyone waited for Mr. Bush to name Gov. Christie Whitman of New Jersey as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Mr. Rove was deep in discussions with the press corps. He was asking about their neighborhoods. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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