Local GOP members give OK to Bush’s Cabinet picks

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT-MESA -- For the most part, Orange County Republicans embraced

President-elect George W. Bush’s Cabinet picks. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher

(R-Huntington Beach) added a caveat.

“He selected some real pros,” Rohrabacher said. “That’s the positive

side. The negative side is they seem a little old. I was hoping for a few

younger faces in the crowd.”

Yet Rohrabacher, 56, and other Republicans in the county praised the

right-of-center ideologies of may of the Bush appointees.

While not necessarily bipartisan, even with the nod to Democrat Norman

Mineta as Transportation secretary, the Cabinet was hailed as a band of

diverse, knowledgeable people.

Jim Toledano, the former head of the Orange County Democratic Party,

wasn’t exactly handing out kudos. But Toledano saved his harshest words

for Bush, not his high-profile advisors.

“I think every one of these individuals is going to have an absolutely

free hand,” Toledano said. “You don’t have any control in this

administration. You don’t have a president who’s in charge.”

Several of Bush’s 14 choices may face resistance in Congress, as

Democratic legislators expressed displeasure with the nomination of

former Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft as attorney general.

Former state Assemblyman Gil Ferguson, who represented Newport Beach

and Costa Mesa from 1984 to 1994, said Ashcroft could become a lightning

rod for anti-Bush sentiment because of his ultraconservative views.

The Democrats “hate people who wear their religion on their sleeve,”

Ferguson said. “They have to peck. . . . You have to have something for

the party and your members to rally around.”

Rep. Chris Cox (R-Newport Beach) also lauded Bush’s choices. A former

attorney in the Reagan White House, Cox said he could vouch for Linda

Chavez, nominated to head the Department of Labor.

Under Reagan, Chavez was the staff director to the U.S. Commission on

Civil Rights, where she spoke out against hiring quotas for minorities.

“There’s no question that the president-elect’s Cabinet choices are

solidly conservative and pragmatic,” Cox said. “To a person, I am very

pleased with the fact that these are folks that I know and have worked

with.”

Many of the nominees visited Orange County during Bush’s campaign

against Vice President Al Gore. They can be counted as friends to the

Republican majority, Orange County Republican Party head Tom Fuentes

said.

“These are people who know our party and community,” Fuentes said.

“The appointments bode well for contact and dialogue between this

administration and our community.”