Naked City

As Vice-President-elect Dick Cheney continues to direct the Bush transition team in Virginia, across the Potomac in D.C. the latest Bush joke has become, "George W. Bush: a heartbeat away from the presidency." Not only was Cheney already at work in Washington when Bush arrived early this week, he was also the first Bush team member at the governor's Washington hotel suite Monday when Bush met with Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan.

"I talked with a good man right here," Bush said after the brief meeting with Greenspan. "We had a very strong discussion about my confidence in his abilities." While it's not easy to understand -- as is often the case with Bush -- what "a very strong discussion" actually means, Bush is apparently over the grudge his family has held against Greenspan, whom the elder Bush believes was responsible for his loss to Bill Clinton. After the 1992 election, the ex-president complained that Greenspan's failure to lower interest rates kept the country in a recession while Bush was running against Clinton...

Clinton has no problem with Greenspan -- despite the Fed chair's policy of depressing the wages of working-class Americans by increasing interest rates whenever the unemployment rate gets too low. Economics professor James Galbraith at the LBJ School of Public Policy has never shared Clinton's enthusiasm for Greenspan -- arguing that Greenspan was a poor choice for a Democratic president, and reminding readers that Greenspan had been a gold bug and a devotee of the writing of economic magical realist Ayn Rand. More recently, Galbraith suggested that Clinton fill Fed board of governors' vacancies with liberal economists, who would dilute Greenspan's control over the economy...

Albert Gonzales -- who in six years has gone from Vinson & Elkins, to secretary of state, to chief legal counsel to GWB, to the Texas Supreme Court -- now moves to Washington as Bush's in-house lawyer. Who else is on the Cheney-Bush appointment list? Texans are up one week, down the next. Ag Commissioner (and former Travis Co. state rep) Susan Combs was mentioned as secretary of agriculture. So was putative Democratic Rep. Charlie Stenholm -- whose nomination would open up a House seat that the GOP could win. Both are probably disappointed to learn that Ann Veneman, a former California agriculture director, is this week's pick for that cabinet position. Barry McBee, whom Bush appointed to chair the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission and who is currently Lt. Gov. Rick Perry's chief of staff, probably won't be directing the U.S. EPA, as some doomsday environmentalists predicted. Mentioned for that position is New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who also had a Monday appointment with Bush. (Whitman is also said to be a possible pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.) Sources also have Albert Hawkins in line for the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Hawkins is an Austin Capitol complex fixture, at the Legislative Budget Board before becoming Bush's budget director, then joining the campaign. He's also the most prominent African-American working for Bush in Texas. But OMB could be one of the worst gigs in the administration -- considering that Bush's chief economics advisor during the transition, Larry Lindsey, has reportedly sold all his stocks to prepare for the economic downturn that is already happening. Lindsey, another holdover from the previous Bush presidency, will probably serve as White House economic advisor...

Professor Galbraith is a safe bet to remain in Austin, where he, too, predicts that the economy will continue to cool down. "I am no longer Chairman-designate of the Federal Reserve Board (Nader Administration)," Galbraith wrote in his column in The Texas Observer. "It's been a heavy burden; I'm relieved to lay it down. I'd rather not preside over the coming slowdown."