San Jose Democrat tapped for Bush Cabinet

Bush had pledged to select a Democrat for his Cabinet and seemed pleased with his choice.

"This man is perfectly suited for the job," Bush said at a news conference announcing the trio of nominations. "It's also important to send a signal that this is an administration that recognizes talent when it sees it, regardless of political party."

Mineta reaffirmed his allegiance to his party, declaring at the news conference: "I am a Democrat with both a small 'd' and a large one."

But with the election over, Mineta said, it is time to move from campaigning to governing.

Mineta set conditions for accepting the job, a White House official said, insisting he would not campaign for Republicans and wanted to choose his own subordinates.

The former California congressman had campaigned for Democrat Al Gore and had questioned Bush's forthrightness following revelations of a drunk driving arrest in Maine.

"That's something he has to answer, especially since he's been bashing Gore on that same issue" of truthfulness, Mineta told the San Jose Mercury News days before the election. "It turns out he's not been as forthright."

Mineta would claim a rare place in American history, apparently becoming the first Cabinet officer to jump straight from the administration of one party to the succeeding administration of another.

Edwin Stanton served as attorney general in the administration of President Buchanan, a Democrat, and later was war secretary for Buchanan's successor, Republican President Lincoln, but there was a break between the two appointments. And James Schlesinger served as defense secretary under GOP Presidents Nixon and Ford, leaving in 1975; in 1977, he joined the Democratic Carter administration as energy secretary.

Bush called his team of nominees "one of the strongest that I think any president has ever been able to assemble."

In April 1999, Abraham was one of four senators who sponsored legislation calling for the abolition of the Energy Department, which was then mired in questions about security at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The bill died.

Chavez pledged to promote safe working conditions and to enforce the labor regulations that guard against discrimination by contractors.

She left the Reagan administration to run for the Senate in Maryland in 1986 but lost. She has been writing a syndicated column.

On another subject, Bush praised Clinton's efforts in the waning days of his administration to reach a Middle East peace pact.

Bush promised diversity in his Cabinet, and it includes two Hispanics, two blacks and one Asian-American, Mineta. Bush nominated three women, and also has chosen a woman to head the Environmental Protection Agency.<