Election Section

AUSTIN, Texas — President-elect Bush, promising a Justice Department “guided by principle, not by politics,” on Friday nominated Sen. John Ashcroft, a staunch conservative, to be attorney general. In a delicate balance, Bush also tapped moderate New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman as environmental chief. 

In announcing Ashcroft, defeated last month as Missouri senator, Bush said, “He will be faithful to the law, pursuing justice without favor. He will enforce the law and he will follow the truth.” 

Several hours later, Bush promoted Whitman, once a rising GOP star, saying, “She has been able to balance the demands for economic growth and at the same time she supported environmental protection measures.” 

Ashcroft, 58, is a former governor and attorney general of Missouri. He was elected to the Senate in 1994, and served on the Judiciary Committee. He lost re-election this year to Gov. Mel Carnahan, who died in a plane crash some three weeks before Election Day. Carnahan’s widow, Jean, has been named to succeed Ashcroft next month. 

Ashcroft said at a news conference that political defeat “brings more than emotion and pain, it brings perspective.” 

A favorite of GOP conservatives who had maneuvered against more moderate choices for the Justice Department, Ashcroft said he would “strive to be a guardian of liberty and equal justice.” Ashcroft, an ardent foe of abortion, said the rule of law “knows no class, sees no color and bows to no creed,” and that will be his guideline. 

“I will administer the Department of Justice with integrity, I will advise your administration with integrity and I will enforce the laws ... with integrity,” he promised Bush. 

Bush said, “John Ashcroft will perform his duties guided by principle, not by politics.” 

Many Republicans have accused Attorney General Janet Reno of playing politics for refusing to appoint an independent counsel to investigate President Clinton and Al Gore for alleged campaign fund-raising abuses. Bush, asked how his department would differ from the Clinton administration, said he didn’t want to “look backwards.”  

Bush defended Ashcroft against complaints from civil rights groups that he helped defeat the nomination for a federal judgeship of Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White, the first black on the high court. 

Julian Bond, NAACP board chairman, strongly criticized the Ashcroft pick. “Any pretense of unifying the nation has ended with this nomination,” Bond said in an interview. “This confirms the correctness of blacks voting 9-to-1 against Governor Bush.” 

Conservatives rallied around Ashcroft. 

“He has a solid conservative legal and judicial philosophy combined with a moderate personal persona which will help him get along with all the people he will need to deal with,” said Republican Gary Bauer. 

Ashcroft and other Cabinet picks require Senate confirmation. 

At the Department of Justice, Ashcroft would manage an agency whose budget this year is $21.8 billion. It comprises the FBI, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and federal prosecutors, marshals and prisons, among others. 

Bush also named Mitch Daniels, senior vice president of the drug giant Eli Lilly Corp. in Indianapolis, to be director of the Office of Management and Budget. Daniels will be responsible for preparing the federal budget and managing spending for all federal agencies. 

On the political front, Bush picked Virginia Gov. James Gilmore to head the Republican National Committee. 

In a bow to environmentalists, Bush emphasized in naming Whitman that he intended to keep the EPA position at the Cabinet-level, a change first made by Clinton that some Republicans opposed. 

“This job will be a challenge,” said Whitman, who grew up on a horse farm. She said it is possible to build “a more prosperous America while meeting our environmental obligations to those who follow us.” 

Whitman, 54, a moderate who favors abortion rights, has angered social conservatives. As governor, she has championed open-space preservation in New Jersey and refused to abandon an unpopular auto emissions test designed to reduce air pollution. Her term ends in January 2002. 

Conservatives such as television evangelist Pat Robertson had signaled impatience with Bush for looking at moderates for his Cabinet. Robertson said on a Thursday night show, “The trust is growing thin” with Bush. 

Republicans close to the president-elect said he had decided to put conservatives in key Cabinet jobs, including attorney general, health and human services and defense, partly to please the GOP right.