Guessing the new Cabinet while Gore, Bush campaign

<br>WASHINGTON (AP) _ While the rest of the country waits to see who will be the next president, in this city _ where politics is both vocation and avocation _ a lot of the speculation is about who will

Tuesday, October 31st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ While the rest of the country waits to see who will be the next president, in this city _ where politics is both vocation and avocation _ a lot of the speculation is about who will be in the next Cabinet.

The top economic post? For treasury secretary, George W. Bush could pick former Federal Reserve member Lawrence Lindsey, who has been traveling on some of Bush's campaign trips. Or someone from Wall Street. Al Gore might well keep the incumbent secretary, Lawrence Summers, in hopes of keeping the economy thriving.

If Bush wins, Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson or the school superintendent from Houston back home in Texas could wind up in his Cabinet _ along with a handful of people who served in his father's administration.

If Gore wins, newcomers could include the mayor of Detroit or the governor of Maryland, or North Carolina, or Delaware _ but with many positions going to familiar faces from the Clinton administration.

And whichever man wins, the job running the Department of Agriculture could go to the same person _ veteran Texas Rep. Charles Stenholm, who is in danger of losing his seat to redistricting.

Richard Holbrooke, with a foreign policy resume stretching back to Vietnam and Lyndon Johnson, is the frequently heard choice for secretary of state in a Gore administration. And everyone _ even Bush, it seems _ expects Colin Powell to get that job in a Bush administration.

On the campaign trail, Bush introduces the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as ``a man who used to be in government, and if all goes well, well. ...''

Holbrooke, who is ambassador to the United Nations, isn't a sure thing for a Gore Cabinet. Speculation also includes former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton, who was chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

For the most part, the presidential candidates are keeping their own counsel on their likely Cabinet members. They may be the only people who are. From sources in and out of government, these are some possible choices:

FOREIGN POLICY:

In addition to Holbrooke, Mitchell or Hamilton at State, conventional wisdom has Gore's foreign policy adviser, Leon Fuerth, as a shoo-in for national security adviser.

Joining Powell at the top of foreign policy under Bush would be Stanford University scholar Condoleezza Rice as national security adviser. She served in President Bush's White House.

DEFENSE:

Frequently mentioned for the Pentagon in a Bush administration: Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Richard Armitage. Of the three, Armitage has been the most active in the Bush campaign, traveling with the candidate on trips when the candidate touches on defense policy.

Wolfowitz, dean of international studies at Johns Hopkins University, was undersecretary of defense for policy when Dick Cheney, Bush's running mate, was defense secretary. Perle, defense braintruster at the American Enterprise Institute, was assistant defense secretary during the Reagan administration. Armitage was ambassador to the newly independent Soviet states and he served at State and Defense under President Bush.

A possible Gore Pentagon chief, former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig, who served in Jimmy Carter's Pentagon, is another possibility.

TREASURY:

Should Gore win, Summers could stay on. Other names being floated: William Daley, secretary of commerce in the Clinton administration and head of Gore's campaign, former Fannie Mae chairman Jim Johnson and Steve Rattner, a Democratic contributor who is a partner in a private equity firm, Quadrangle Group.

Bush's most prominent economic adviser has been Lindsey, who was appointed to the Federal Reserve Board by Bush's father. Lindsey has been on many recent Bush campaign trips.

A name heard on Wall Street is Donald Marron, who runs the PaineWebber brokerage house. John Cogan, a Stanford University economist and policy adviser to Presidents Reagan and Bush, also is said to be in the running. Cogan also has accompanied the Texas governor on campaign swings.

JUSTICE:

If Gore wins, some former Justice Department officials think the next attorney general could be Charles Burson, former Tennessee attorney general and the vice president's current chief of staff.

Other contenders are Eric Holder, the current deputy attorney general, and Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, a former Supreme Court justice in Michigan.

Still other names are Gore's brother-in-law Frank Hunger, formerly an assistant attorney general; former deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick, now vice chairman at Fannie Mae, and Walter Dellinger, former solicitor general.

Often mentioned for Bush is Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, who was No. 3 at Justice during Bush's father's administration; Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who helped Bush prepare for his debates, and Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., should he lose his re-election bid.

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES:

Current Secretary Donna Shalala appears headed for a university post but is the choice of some women's advocates for White House chief of staff under Gore.

If Gore wins, Surgeon General David Satcher could be given HHS. He's a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Other names: Leon Panetta, former White House chief of staff and President Clinton's former budget director; Alice Rivlin, also a former Clinton budget director and Federal Reserve Board member; David Kessler, former administrator of the Food and Drug Administration, and Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, former administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid.

One other name is former Rep. Tom Downey, D-N.Y., a Gore campaign aide.

If Bush wins, American Red Cross president Bernadine Healy is a possible choice. President Bush appointed her to head the National Institutes of Health.

Two others: Gail Wilensky, who helped craft Bush's Medicare prescription drug plan and directed health care financing in his father's administration, and Bill Roper, dean of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina and a former director of the CDC.

EDUCATION:

A Bush possibility is Rod Paige, superintendent of the Houston Independent School District who has appeared with Bush to talk about education in Texas. Another is Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, chairman of the National Education Goals Panel. (His experience with welfare reform could make him a pick for secretary of health and human services as well.)

Other Bush possibilities: Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and Lisa Graham Keegan, Arizona's superintendent of public instruction, a staunch supporter of charter schools and vouchers. Also, a possible Democrat in Bush's cabinet: former Dallas Democratic Party chairman Sandy Kress, who has been an informal adviser.

Figuring in the Gore speculation are North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt, who is seen as a conciliator respected in both parties, Delaware Gov. Tom Carper and White House domestic policy adviser Bruce Reed.

AGRICULTURE:

Rep. Stenholm, a conservative Democrat who could lose his seat when Texas is redistricted, is being mentioned in both political camps.

Other Bush possibilities include Ann Veneman, former agricultural commissioner in California and a senior Agriculture Department official in the Bush administration; Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Charles Kruse, a Missouri farmer and former state agriculture commissioner.

Other names on the Gore side: Rep. Cal Dooley, D-Calif.; Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., and two Agriculture Department undersecretaries, August Schumacher Jr. and Jill Long Thompson.

COMMERCE:

Insiders were at a loss to name prospective GOP candidates, saying more visible Cabinet posts would have to be decided first.

If Gore is elected, Norman Mineta, the first Asian-American member of the Cabinet, might be asked to stay on. Or Labor Secretary Alexis Herman might move over. The names of top fund-raisers Peter Knight and Terry McAuliffe also are being mentioned.

EPA:

Bush's EPA director might be David Struhs, a moderate in the minds of environmentalists who directs the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Two other, more conservative, prospects: Chris DeMuth, a regulatory expert at the American Enterprise Institute, and Russell Harding, head of Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality.

For Gore, a front-runner appears to be Kathleen McGinty, former head of the Council on Environmental Quality in the Clinton White House. Another possibility is Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening, stepping aside to elevate Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

INTERIOR:

On the Gore side, speculation is all over the lot. There's Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber; former Colorado Gov. Roy Roemer, who now runs the Los Angeles school system; Sen. Richard Bryan of Nevada; George Frampton, acting head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and former director of the Wilderness Society, and former Colorado Sen. Tim Wirth.

For Bush, bets are on Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, who has been a leading spokesman on land issues in the West. If Sen. Slade Gorton loses his race for re-election in Washington, however, Bush might tap him.

ENERGY:

If Gorton gets Interior, Racicot might end up at Energy. Other possible Bush picks include Tom Kuhn, a buddy from Yale and head of the Edison Electric Institute, and 1996 GOP convention chairman Kenneth Lay, chairman of the giant gas and energy company, Enron.

For Gore, one name mentioned is Bryan, the Democratic senator from Nevada. There are longer odds for two others, Tom Grumbly, who formerly headed a nuclear weapons cleanup effort at Energy, and Deputy Energy Secretary T.J. Glauthier.