The race is on for plum posts

WASHINGTON, DEC. 14. Gen. Colin Powell does not need to fax his resume to the Bush-Cheney transition headquarters.

But for all except the party's chosen few, Wednesday was the day when Republicans shifted from fantasising about sweeping back into power to figuring out how best to land a job in a new administration.

Preferably with a window.

A few of the big jobs are spoken for. Gen. Powell is all but certain to become Secretary of State. Condoleezza Rice will be National Security Adviser. Karen Hughes, Mr. George W. Bush's communications director, will no doubt hold a similar post at the White House.

Nearly every other job - and there are about 7,000 political appointments to be made - is up for grabs. Having spent eight years without an executive branch portfolio, a good many registered Republicans seem interested in the posts.

As of Tuesday night, before it was even certain that Mr. Bush would become president, his skeletal transition operation here had received 20,177 job applications. Most came through the operation's website, with a growing number arriving by mail and fax. All are being sorted by a staff of 16 personnel assistants.

``My big concern is that the flood of resumes from Republicans seeking positions will clog up the postal service and block on- time delivery of Christmas packages,'' said Mr. Paul C. Light, the director of governmental studies at the Brookings Institution. Of course, the manoeuvring had begun long before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday, even for the politically titled and entitled.

``Why was Christine Todd Whitman examining chad?'' said Mr. Marshall Wittmann, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who was a Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services in Mr. George Bush's administration. ``She was on a job search.

``The Miami-Dade `riot'?'' Mr. Wittmann continued, only half- jokingly referring to the protest organised by Republicans at a critical moment during the Florida recount. ``All those people will get nice jobs in the Bush administration.''

There is a long list of names floating around for the top few dozen jobs - not just what are known in Washington lexicon as the plums, the full list of appointive posts in the executive branch, but the prunes, or posts for the more seasoned plums.

A few of Mr. Bush's closest confidants will get their pick. Mr. Donald Evans, Bush's campaign chairman, is often mentioned as a possible Commerce Secretary.

Many White House jobs will no doubt go to people who have been working for the Bush campaign. Mr. Lawrence Lindsey, Mr. Bush's chief economic adviser, appears headed toward a similar job in the West Wing. Ditto for Mr. Josh Bolten, who coordinated domestic policy for the campaign.

For Defense Secretary, most of the speculation has been about former Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., although there are nearly a dozen other Republicans with military and foreign policy experience whose names also come up regularly for top Pentagon jobs. There is still talk in the Bush camp of appointing a Democrat to the job.

Wall Street executives dominate the list of names under consideration for Treasury Secretary. The three mentioned most often are Mr. Walter V. Shipley, former chairman of the Chase Manhattan Corp.; Mr. Donald B. Marron, chairman of the PaineWebber Group, and Mr. John M. Hennessy, former chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston. Other possibilities are Rep. Bill Archer of Texas, the departing chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Mr. Gerald L. Parsky, a former Treasury official.

Gov. Frank Keating of Oklahoma appears to be the leading candidate for Attorney-General. Gov. Marc Racicot of Montana, who became a leading spokesman for Mr. Bush during the battle over the Florida recount, could be rewarded with an appointment as Interior Secretary.

Republicans, especially conservatives, have mixed feelings about jobs in Cabinet agencies they see as representing the excesses of the federal government: Health and Human Services, for example, or Housing and Urban Development.

Yet there is no shortage of candidates. The housing job could go to Mr. Stephen Goldsmith, a former mayor of Indianapolis. Gov. Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin is assumed to be a top contender for secretary of health and human services, despite his failure to deliver his state to Bush on Election Day.

- New York Times

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