White House Puts The Brakes On Appointments

After getting off to a fast start by naming a new chief of staff just days after the election, the White House Thursday put the brakes on its transition to a second term, postponing most new Cabinet appointments until January.

Roughly half of President Clinton’s Cabinet and much of his senior staff at the White House are on the way out the door and high-ranking officials had hoped for a swift and orderly effort to rebuild the top echelons of the administration. But that is beginning to look like an overly ambitious goal for a White House that historically has had problems with personnel.

“We started off, I think, a little too fastpaced,” White House press secretary Michael McCurry said Thursday as he tried to douse any expectations of impending announcements.

Instead of focusing exclusively on choosing a new inner circle this week, Clinton has been distracted by proposals to launch or continue military intervention in Zaire and Bosnia. More than a week after the election, Clinton has yet to even meet with most of his Cabinet to discuss their intentions for the next four years.

With the president scheduled to leave this afternoon for a 12-day vacation and foreign mission, the transition once again will be bumped off the front burner. As a result, McCurry said, decisions about nominations will not be made until December, followed by an extensive vetting of the candidates, with public announcements “right about the beginning of the year or early in the new year.”

The only exceptions are likely to be his national-security team, on which Clinton’s “thinking is much more highly advanced,” McCurry said.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Defense Secretary William Perry have announced their intentions to resign, while national-security adviser Anthony Lake, U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Deutch all figure prominently in various job-shuffling scenarios.

Clinton had once hoped to name a successor to Christopher before leaving, but it’s clear that will not happen. Administration sources held out the possibility of an announcement Friday of a new defense secretary, although that was a distinct long-shot.

Clinton met at the White House on Thursday with Education Secretary Richard Riley, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and Acting Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, all of whom are expected to remain with the administration.