Rolling Back Clinton

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But Bush would hate to have his first weeks in office be remembered only for efforts to blot out the work of his popular predecessor. He can't afford to look like the front man for right-wingers on an ideological joyride. (Liberals would love for him to inhabit that caricature.) That's why he put his top political adviser, Karl Rove, in charge of drawing up a detailed action plan for the first 180 days of the Bush Administration. Rove's task: to take the items in the agenda Bush campaigned on, turn them into pieces of actual legislation and then choreograph their rollout for maximum political benefit. The best antidote to the public's lingering qualms about Bush's legitimacy, says an adviser, is to "show that we're very busy doing things that real people want. We have to get some things done--fast."

Bush advisers and Capitol Hill Republicans say Rove has laid out a plan--in a series of memos and calendars--for the boss's first four weeks. In his first legislative act, on Tuesday, Bush plans to send Congress a package of education reforms that would require states to test students, promote character and abstinence programs, and give parents of kids in failing public schools vouchers that they can use to help pay tuition at private and parochial schools. Next week Bush will introduce legislation on another signature issue, a proposal to funnel federal funds to community- and faith-based charities that do everything from feed the homeless to treat the addicted. Then, just as they recess for most of February, members of Congress will receive a copy of Bush's 10-year, $1.6 trillion tax-cut proposal to tuck into their travel bags.

The tax cut is Bush's most profound attack on Clinton's economic legacy. In 1993, without G.O.P. support, Clinton pushed through a budget that raised taxes on the affluent and sliced into the burgeoning deficit. Most economists credit that deal with helping launch the next seven years of economic growth, but Bush partisans see it differently. "The Bush tax cut is a direct rollback of Clinton's largest tax increase in history," says Bush aide Ed Gillespie. But Bush may not end up cutting into Clinton's overall spending levels. His emphasis on education, military and health-care spending won't let him. "It would not be surprising to me if you got bigger budget requests from the Bush Administration than you did the Clinton Administration," says conservative economist Stephen Moore.

Bush will have trouble enough trying to execute Rove's plan in the face of Democratic opposition. But his biggest distraction may come from Republican rival John McCain, who is poised to launch an all-out battle on behalf of his favorite issue, campaign-finance reform. McCain will reintroduce his signature bill in the Senate this week and unveil a new grass-roots organization, Americans for Reform, to browbeat Congress into passing his ban on soft-money contributions. Bush, who hates the bill, plans to meet with McCain on Wednesday to try to talk him into delaying a vote until later in the year.

Bush would rather do battle with Clinton's ghost than a Senator of his own party. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer was right when he labeled Clinton's last-minute pile of new rules, orders and treaties the work of a "busy beaver." The former President's aides had mischief in mind when they conjured up some of these actions, especially the designation of more than 5.6 million acres of federal land as national monuments. If Bush wants to reverse those orders, he will face howls of protests from environmental groups. "We laid a few traps," chirps a happy Clinton aide. In the 95 years since the practice was established under Teddy Roosevelt, no President's designation of a national monument has ever been reversed by a successor. But Bush aides insist they can circumvent the moves--and please the mining and logging industries--by writing land "management plans" for the monuments that allow for some commercial use. "Oh, right," replies Bruce Reed, Clinton's domestic-policy adviser. "I'm sure the public won't notice that."

Bush's new neighbors may notice one change. With his first day on the job came a new set of license plates. In solidarity with Washingtonians who demand statehood, Clinton had the new presidential limo outfitted with D.C. tags marked with the phrase TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. Bush doesn't support D.C. statehood and believes public vehicles should not be used to make political statements. And no token of the Clinton era is too small for a rollback.