Bush Praises Jackson, Scores on Environment

WASHINGTON —  Election-year political foes George Bush and the Rev. Jesse Jackson exchanged compliments today at the White House, and Bush declared, “This wasn’t a bury the hatchet meeting because no hatchet needed to be buried.’

He said the two men have a “relationship that transcends politics.”

Jackson said the most important aspect of the meeting was the “openness by President-elect Bush to discuss a broad range of matters.”

Bush, a Republican, and Jackson, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination, had spoken critically of each other during the long campaign, with Jackson saying Bush was not morally fit to be President.

However, Bush said today, “The campaign is over. I have no arguments with the way that Rev. Jackson conducted himself toward me.”

“There will be times . . . when I will ask for his suggestions” during the Bush Administration, he said. “He has some very good ideas.”

Bush said that the issue of Willie Horton, the murderer whose furlough from a Massachusetts prison was used in GOP campaign ads, came up during today’s meeting and that he told Jackson he had not intended to make it a racial issue.

Bush Offers Reassurance

Jackson, asked how he felt about Bush’s explanation, repeated his view that the TV ads did incite racial fears, but said Bush had assured him “that was not his intention.”

Earlier today, Bush met with leaders of environmental groups and displayed an attitude that one of the leaders said showed a “night-and-day” difference from the Reagan years.

Spokesmen for the “Blueprint for the Environment,” a coalition of about 30 environmental groups that presented Bush with detailed proposals, were uniformly positive in characterizing Bush’s response to their goals.

However, they acknowledged they had received no commitments from him other than that he would consider their proposals and would assign key Cabinet nominees to meet with them.

One of the environmental groups’ leaders, Jay Hair of the National Wildlife Federation, said he had told the vice president, “Mr. Bush, read my lips: ‘Protect the environment.’ ”

Hair said Bush reacted positively to the wordplay on his own no-taxes campaign phrase, replying, “I will, I will.”