Bush due to name Cabinet members

President-Elect George W. Bush is expected to announce the first members of his Cabinet today

President-Elect George W. Bush is expected to announce the first members of his Cabinet today. He is preparing to fly to Washington at the weekend, where he will meet President Clinton, who defeated Mr Bush's father in the 1992 US presidential election, and Vice-President Al Gore.

It was revealed yesterday that after his concession speech on Wednesday night, Mr Gore celebrated the end of the election by partying into the small hours at the vice-presidential mansion.

No members of the media were invited but photographs of him dancing and drinking beer while his wife Tipper played the drums appeared yesterday in the New York Daily News.

Model Naomi Campbell was among the guests as well as rock stars Stevie Wonder, Jon Bon Jovi and Tom Petty, who supplied the music.

READ MORE

Mr Bush has now received his black-armoured, presidential-style limousine, indicating his new status as President-elect. He is also being given more Secret Service protection.

He had lunch in Austin yesterday with Democratic Senator John Breaux, whom he is interested in having in his Cabinet, to demonstrate bipartisanship.

But Democrats are urging Mr Breaux not to take a Cabinet post as this would allow the Republican Governor of Louisiana to appoint a Republican to the Senate, which is tied 50-50 between the two parties at present.

Among the first appointments Mr Bush is expected to announce are those of retired General Colin Powell as Secretary of State in charge of foreign policy and Ms Condoleezza Rice as National Security Adviser. Both are African-American and served under Mr Bush's father in the White House.

Mr Bush is expected to interview more prospective Cabinet members in Washington, where he will also meet members of Congress on Capitol Hill.

On Monday, the 538 members of the Electoral College meet in 50 state capitals and in Washington D.C. to vote for President.

Normally this is a formality whereby the electors deliver their votes for the candidate who won in each state but this year the election was so close that there is speculation there could be some "faithless electors" who might switch their votes from Mr Bush to Mr Gore.

Following his win in Florida, Mr Bush on paper has 371 electoral votes to 367 for Mr Gore. If just three electors switched their votes, Mr Gore would then be elected.

According to the conservative Washington Times, dozens of electors, who are usually party officials in each state, have been lobbied to change their vote so that Mr Gore, who beat Mr Bush in the popular vote by more than 300,000 votes, would be elected.

The newspaper reported that about one-third of the phone calls were from Democrats urging the Republican electors to change sides while the rest were calls asking them to stick with Mr Bush.

South Carolina and Oklahoma are the only states which penalise electors who defect. About half the 50 states do not require a formal pledge from electors to back the winner in their state.

A Democratic consultant, Mr Bob Beckel, admitted some weeks ago that he was checking out possible defectors from Mr Bush. "I'm trying to kidnap these electors in states that Mr Bush won that are not legally bound to him, that have a right to vote how they want to," Mr Beckel said in a television interview.

His action was disavowed by Mr Warren Christopher, a senior political adviser to Mr Gore.

The Wall Street Journal identified four potential defectors from Mr Bush's list in the Electoral College but two of these have strongly denied any intention to switch their votes and the other two, from New Hampshire and Mr Gore's home state of Tennessee, have not been returning calls.

There have been instances in the past of electors not voting for their candidate but without having any effect on the result of the election.

Mr Gore in his concession speech made it clear that he did not want any unexpected actions in Monday's vote.