Lawrence Ari Fleischer

“ What does he hope that Americans see out of this gesture of him going to meet with the Democrats? MR. FLEISCHER: I think the President also hopes that by going to the retreats of the other parties as well, of course, of his own party, that people across the country will see our government works together well. That's one of the lessons of the election. He said that in the wake of a very close election he thought it was a signal to all the politicians that they needed to work together, that they needed to rise above the narrow margin and focus less on bickering and more on working. ”

“ The President believes that the United States and all Americans, whether they voted for him or not, whether they support Senator Ashcroft at this moment or not, are going to come to see an Attorney General they can be proud of. And he thinks that in time people will recognize that we have a non-political Attorney General, an Attorney General who will enforce the law, an Attorney General who we will all be proud of. ”

“ So African Americans should not take it as a slap in the face that after President Bush found out that there were some things that he didn't know, and he did not withdraw Ashcroft, that even though he's sitting as the head of the Justice Department, that everything is still fine and civil rights will still be a cornerstone of his administration? ”

“ Q Ari, some Democrats are already starting to suggest that the administration can't afford to pay for all the programs it wants and the tax cut. How do you respond to that? MR. FLEISCHER: Again, the math is simple. We have a non-Social Security surplus over the next year of $3.1 trillion. And the President is offering a tax cut that some have estimated over 10 years is $1.6 trillion. What we hope is that nobody is saying that so that they can leave more money on the table, because if they do, it will surely be spent. That's the way Washington works. Washington was built to spend. ”

“ We are a system that enacts laws on the basis of a majority signed by the President; that will always be our goal. Some issues will lend themselves to 51 percent vote; some issues will lend themselves to votes of a bigger margin. Q Ari, does the President see the Ashcroft vote as his first test of this effort on his part to reach out and create a bipartisan atmosphere? You're going to have almost 40 Democrats voting against a former colleague even amidst all this conspicuous outreach from the White House to be bipartisan. ”

“ I think what you will see in the President's conduct of foreign policy in Europe and around the world, that he wants to have a foreign policy that is marked by a humble -- humble foreign policy, a humble nation, that does not go around the world dictating to other nations what to do. ”

“ Q President Clinton is giving an interview to Israeli TV at a very delicate juncture in both Israeli politics and the peace process. Does the President believe that's helpful? MR. FLEISCHER: I haven't discussed it with him. Q Ari, you said, by definition the Ashcroft vote would be bipartisan. But also, by any mathematics, it is the least bipartisan of all of the confirmation votes. What does it say to you about the ability of this administration to communicate to Democrats its message about a controversial nominee and their ability to respond? ”

“ Q No, but, seriously, there is some grumbling among some conservatives that all this reaching out to liberals like Ted Kennedy, and the indications that he might fold on vouchers or step back his tax cut, is a sign of a President perhaps not as staunchly conservative as they would hope. ”

“ He's very gratified that he's been invited to the retreats of the Senate Democrats and the House Democrats. It's without modern precedent for a President of the opposite party to go. It may be without precedent entirely. We're trying to trace it back, but that's what we found so far. Q Senator Ashcroft is presumably about to be confirmed; the vote is ongoing right now. ”

“ No, the proposal the President made during the campaign does not. The proposal he will submit to the Congress will be based on his proposal during the campaign. Q Do we expect to have a nomination for ambassador to the United Nations real soon? MR. FLEISCHER: On all the remaining personnel announcements, as soon as things are announceable, I will indicate it, but I'm not going to speculate on the timetables. Q Go back to tax cuts. When the Democrats talk about your tax cuts, they add in the interest cost of the tax cut. ”

“ And that's encouraging. By definition. Q Ari, in this weekend's meeting with congressional members of Congress, how much of his time there is he going to use to nail down the details of the tax plan and the budget plan? MR. FLEISCHER: No, it's not a bill drafting session. It's a retreat. And typically what happens at these retreats -- I've retreated to a number of them myself at the same facility in Williamsburg for many years. It's a real good get-together. ”

“ Let me remind everybody of one other thing -- and this is the way Congress has worked historically and still does -- on any given day, somebody will vote with you in the morning and vote against you in the afternoon. It's still all our jobs to work together. Q Ari, a follow-up to that. ”