Business as Usual as Bush Plays Waiting Game

AUSTIN, Texas —  He goes to work so early some mornings that you can see his breath, even in this mild climate, as he strides from his motorcade into the state Capitol.

Since election day, Texas Gov. George W. Bush mostly has shunned the spotlight. But behind closed doors, he is plugging away on an array of state business while also planning his ascendancy to the White House and supervising his far-flung army of lawyers and strategists--displaying an ability to compartmentalize during this unpredictable interregnum.

During occasional getaways to his Prairie Chapel Ranch, 90 miles north of here, the Texas governor has consulted with architects working on the ranch house renovation, which is behind schedule; cleared weeds that blocked the mouth of a canyon where he and his wife, Laura, like to walk; grilled hamburgers; and plunged into a new biography of Joe DiMaggio.

But there is little retreat from politics:

On Saturday, Bush hosted House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) at the ranch, where they discussed an agenda for the next session of Congress.

Joined by Bush running mate Dick Cheney, the men held what Bush described as the “beginning of a lot of discussions about how to do what’s right for the country.” He specifically mentioned adding prescription drug coverage to Medicare, reforming Social Security and enacting a broad tax cut.

Asked about remarks he made during the campaign chastising certain budgetary priorities set by the GOP majority in Congress, Bush soft-pedaled his criticism and then quipped: “I’m soon to be the insider. I’m soon to be the president.”

Bush, Gore Styles Are Total Opposites

With Campaign 2000 in limbo, Bush has displayed a blend of brashness and modesty, of detachment and hands-on management that may foreshadow how he would handle the presidency.

Just three days after the election, he staged an Oval Office-like meeting for public consumption; yet he publicly rejects the title of president-elect. He makes the final calls in the legal fight in Florida, but he didn’t bother to get sufficient details of Cheney’s recent hospitalization--and thus misspoke on national television by saying his running mate had not had a heart attack.

His style sharply contrasts that of the man who also believes he has won the presidency: Vice President Al Gore, a famous micromanager who is immersed in the minutiae of his election contest.

Although Bush is well into his transition planning, he has turned most of the details over to Cheney, who increasingly appears more like a prime minister than a would-be vice president.

Yet Bush has remained the driving force behind the GOP strategy designed to thwart Gore at every turn in Florida: oppose all hand-counts and stall for time, hoping public impatience will force the vice president to concede.

On the public relations front, Bush has sought to project the image of a president-in-waiting, eager to assume the reins of power.

Toward that end, the governor’s operatives have overlooked no detail. For his address to the nation one night from the State Capitol, they replaced a Texas flag with an American flag--so that the Stars and Stripes framed Bush as he spoke. The next day, the Lone Star was back in its rightful place.

(The vice president’s strategists are no slouches either when it comes to stagecrafting; they have assembled an even bigger phalanx of American flags for some of Gore’s remarks.)

Aides want Bush to appear statesmanlike, above the fray--a stance they believe might help him unite the country more quickly if he wins the election.

To six-term state Rep. Elliott Naishtat, a top Texas Democrat, Bush’s behavior since the election is entirely in keeping with his gubernatorial style.

“He delegates a lot of the detail work to staff, whether we’re talking about his director of legislation or Dick Cheney,” Naishtat said. “He’s always engaged--but often on what I would characterize as a superficial level.”

Bush, Naishtat added, also is “extremely confident and not afraid to show [that] side of himself. Some people refer to it as arrogance. But I believe that he is very confident in his abilities.”

Bush has displayed an air of nonchalance about the electoral standoff from the start. The morning after voters went to the polls, he rose before Laura, put on the coffee and fed their dog and two cats.

When asked by reporters later that day about his frame of mind, Bush replied: “Actually, my whole future isn’t on the line. I’m not worried about me getting through it.”

“He’s been the most steady one among us. It truly has been a roller coaster, but he has remained very tranquil,” said Karen Hughes, the governor’s communications director.

Behind the scenes, however, the governor already had launched a strategy to checkmate Gore--at every courthouse and in the court of public opinion.

That same day, his strategists quietly let reporters know that Bush had begun focusing on a transition, defending the move as “only appropriate,” given his belief that he had won.

Bush aides even leaked word that he intended to name retired Army Gen. Colin L. Powell as his secretary of State, Cheney as head of his transition team and Andrew H. Card Jr., a former Transportation secretary, as his White House chief of staff.

As Hughes put it: “There’s a great deal of work to be done. There are a lot of decisions to be made. . . . And Secretary Cheney and Gov. Bush feel a responsibility to begin that process of preparing to govern.”

Just three days after the election, Bush repaired to his 1,500-acre ranch in Crawford, Texas, near Waco, where he has access to no cable or satellite television.

The retreat was intended to convey Bush’s personal detachment from the increasingly venomous scene in Florida. But it served a practical purpose as well.

Outside the Governor’s Mansion in downtown Austin, the din created by his supporters and Gore backers had made it difficult for Bush to think and work.

“It’s a tranquil place where it’s easy to do some thinking and reflecting, and to spend time on the telephone and to call around the country,” Hughes said, referring to Bush’s ranch.

While there, Bush let surrogates do the talking for him, among them former Persian Gulf War hero Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf and Montana Gov. Marc Racicot.

But Bush remained involved more than most people realized.

Within days of the election, most of his strategists had concluded that the public would not tolerate for long the prospect of a drawn-out recount. Thus they assumed that Gore would concede soon after the overseas absentee ballots were tallied.

With Gore Entrenched, Plan B Was Used

But Gore’s resolve only hardened; so Bush activated Plan B.

“I decided that it was best to take our case to the Supreme Court of the United States,” he said.

Speaking by phone from the ranch to his campaign chairman, Donald Evans, Bush also decided not to challenge Wisconsin’s results.

“He makes all the decisions,” said spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Hughes said Bush consults with James A. Baker III, his top advisor in Florida, three to four times daily. Cheney and Card usually participate in those discussions.

In recent days, Bush has escalated his telephone calls to fellow GOP governors and congressional Republicans to discuss the transition and the electoral standoff.

So far, he has called only two congressional Democrats: Rep. Gene Taylor--the conservative firebrand from Mississippi who said he would vote for Bush if the election dispute reached the House--and Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.), a centrist who is considered to be perhaps the key operative in an evenly divided Senate.

Bush also called to congratulate Mexico President Vicente Fox, just days before Fox’s own inauguration. Then Bush appointed Texas Secretary of State Elton Bomer to represent him at Fox’s inauguration.

Another piece of state business that Bush performed the other day was to officially certify the election results in Texas.

“He’s still the governor,” Cheney said the other day. “He has responsibilities to carry out there. That’s why he spends a lot of time in Austin and time out on the ranch.”

But with each passing day, Bush is turning more and more to his transition.

He, Cheney and Card have been discussing staffing, as well as other matters.

“We have some excellent ideas,” Cheney said. “We could move very rapidly in a couple of areas. But [Bush] has to decide the timing, when he wants to announce.”