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- NATION, Page 29American NotesTHE ADMINISTRATIONAt Last, a Full Cabinet-to-Be
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- George Bush seems to have found the position of Secretary of
- Energy the hardest to fill in the entire top rank of his
- Administration. Not until last week did he announce the last of
- his 14 Cabinet appointments, but then his choice drew much
- praise. His selection: retired Admiral James Watkins, 60, an
- expert on nuclear power, former Chief of Naval Operations and
- once a long-shot prospect to become father-in-law of Britain's
- Prince Charles (Watkins' daughter Laura Jo had a romance with
- the Prince before marrying an American actor). Watkins' last
- Government job was as head of Ronald Reagan's AIDS commission;
- he showed a gift for drawing agreement from people with very
- diverse views by coaxing a surprisingly compassionate report
- out of a sometimes quarrelsome group. Watkins' flexibility will
- be sorely tested in his new job. His biggest task will be to
- develop a strategy for resuming nuclear-weapons-fuel production
- and simultaneously cleaning up the fearsome pollution caused by
- now closed weapons plants -- so far without access to anything
- like the tens of billions of dollars in funding that will
- eventually be required.
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