INEXPERIENCED BUSH NAMES TEAM OF OLD-TIMERS
  By Bill Press
 
 Get a friend to take you for lunch someday at the Metropolitan Club in Washington,
 two blocks from the White House. I was there once. It's like going to the Wax Museum.
 Tables are filled with the ghosts of Washington. As you survey the silver-haired crowd,
 your mind races with questions: ``Is he still alive? Didn't he used to be somebody?
 Why is he still hanging around Washington?''
 
 Now we know. These old fossils are still hanging around Washington waiting for somebody
 to give them another job. George W. Bush just did. Trolled the Metropolitan Club,
 or someplace like it, to fill his cabinet with has-beens.
 
 Read the list of nominees so far. It's a bunch of Republican retreads. Six of them -- Colin Powell,
 National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Agriculture Secretary
 Ann Veneman, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Veterans Affairs Director Anthony Principi
 -- served in the first Bush administration.

 Four of them -- Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Labor Secretary Linda Chavez and
 Interior Secretary Gale Norton -- were in the Reagan White House. Four men --  Powell, Rumsfeld,
 Dick Cheney and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill -- worked for President Ford.
 Rumsfeld's presidential pedigree even goes back to President Nixon. The only one missing from this
 list of ancient Republicans is Henry Kissinger!
 
 We've seen this movie before. It's called ``Back to the Future.''
 
 How ironic. Bush campaigned as a Washington outsider, then fills his cabinet with Washington insiders.
 Clearly, Bush had to pick a couple of grown-ups to make up for his own lack of experience.
 But there's a danger in choosing so many political graybeards.
 
 First, it's not what people want. As confusing as the 2000 presidential campaign was, one thing was clear:
 Americans were voting for the first presidency of the new millennium, not for a rerun of failed attempts of the old.
 If we wanted a repeat of the old Bush administration, we would have elected George H., not George W.
 
 Plus, it's not that they all did such a great job the first time around. Colin Powell originally opposed Desert Storm,
 then ended it by leaving Saddam Hussein in power. Gale Norton worked as deputy to James Watt, perhaps
 the most inept Interior Secretary in history. Why do either of them deserve another time at bat?
 
 But the most important reason for not looking backward in making so many appointments is: The world has
 changed since these folks last put on their government knickers. Big time, as Dick Cheney would say.
 
 This is especially so in the case of Don Rumsfeld. True, he served as secretary of Defense under Ford.
 Did a good job, too. But that was 26 years ago: back when there was still a Soviet Union, America was
 still fighting the Cold War and George Bush was still in his reckless 20s. Before we had to deal with
 government-sponsored terrorism, threats of chemical warfare and regional conflicts in Somalia, Bosnia,
 Kosovo, East Timor and Rwanda. Today's changed times demand a new way of looking at defense
 strategy, spending and capability. Yesterday's ideas and leaders no longer fit.
 
 Bush's reliance on the past is particularly surprising, given the number of young leaders in the Republican party.
 Bill Paxon, Susan Molinari, Rick Lazio, Vin Weber and John Kasich are talented and respected former
 members of Congress who would be a credit to any administration. J.C. Watts, Steve Largent, John Sununu,
 Lindsay Graham, Chris Cox and Vito Fossella are current members who might have been persuaded to
 leave Congress for a Cabinet post.
 
 In short, there is no lack of new leaders and new ideas in the Republican party.
 But new leaders and new ideas are sadly lacking in the Bush administration.
 
 The only saving grace about Bush's collection of old-timers is: At least he will always have adult supervision.
 
 Indeed, the very thought of George W. alone in the Oval Office is scary. But now we don't have to worry.
 Whether it's Dick Cheney or Colin Powell or Don Rumsfeld, one of the grown-ups will always be there,
 to make sure he doesn't push the wrong button.
 
 

 Bill Press is co-host of CNN's ``Crossfire.''
 

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