Full Steam Ahead
George W. Bush's team shows no outward signs that the first GOP White House in eight years plans to shrink from its core agenda due to the close and disputed presidential election or the divided Congress.
"We have no intention of backing off of it. That's why we got elected," Vice President-elect Dick Cheney told CBS News' Face The Nation on Sunday.
Now in charge of the Texas governor's transition to the White House, Cheney said the new administration's agenda is one in which Bush can reach out and work with Democrats to get things done.
"We'll aggressively pursue tax changes, tax reform and tax cuts partly for the surplus reasons. We will pursue education reform and Social Security and Medicare reform. Those are important national priorities and need to be addressed," he said.
Cheney also dismissed the idea that the tight and contested election - settled only last week by Vice President Al Gore's concession - automatically weakens the new Bush administration before it begins.
"The suggestion that somehow because is this was a close election we should fundamentally change our beliefs, I think is silly, he said. "These are not radical positions. These are good, solid proposals to address important national issues and we'll continue to pursue them."
And the vice president-elect hinted that both the narrow presidential outcome and the partisan split on Capitol Hill may prove a boon to the incoming administration.
"People say a close margin is an ineffective administration. The most dangerous and unsuccessful administrations in my experience were the ones with the biggest margins, Richard Nixon with Watergate, Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam," he said. "Sometimes the presidents with the closest margins have turned out to be the most effective."
On campaign finance reform, Cheney was asked whether President-elect Bush would support the McCain-Feingold bill. The vice president-elect said Bush favors legislation that includes so-called "paycheck protection", something that the bill co-sponsored by Arizona Sen. (and one-time Bush GOP rival) John McCain lacks.
"I think after the Florida recount process, there is going to be great interest in complete election reform, that people are going to want to sit down and look at the whole spectrum of how we select our presidents, a part of it is finance," Cheney told Face The Nation.
"We are eager to work with Senator McCain and anyone interested to put together an acceptable piece of legislation," added the vice president-elect. McCain has said that his legislation - co-sponsored with Democrat Russ Feingold of Wisconsin - has 60 votes to pass in the Senate, which is split 50-50 between the two parties with Cheney as the tie-breaker.
Finally, don't count out members from the other party in the new Bush Cabinet, said Cheney.
"I expect (it) will also include a Democrat or two alonthe way," he said. "So it is going to be a Cabinet that I think people will be very comfortable with and that all Americans should be able to look at and say that they are in fact represented."