WASHINGTON -- Future first lady Barbara Bush is getting ready to name her press secretary and several applicants have been interviewed at the transition office.
Susan Porter, Mrs. Bush's longtime top aide, will be her chief of staff. But the press secretary, who will share the White House East wing offices with Porter, will be fielding the barrage of daily telephone calls from the media.
Mrs. Bush is in the throes of packing for her new life and moving out of the vice president's mansion on Observatory Hill on elegant Massachusetts Avenue.
Friendly and outgoing, Mrs. Bush is expected to be her own best spokeswoman, although she admits that she sometimes shoots from the hip and has to later explain her remarks. 'No more poet laureate,' she says, when reminded of the rhyme she used to describe Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro in the 1984 campaign, saying her description of her husband's rival rhymed with 'rich.'
White House reporters see in President-elect George Bush shades of Lyndon Johnson, who often attended three separate church services on any given Sunday -- an early morning Roman Catholic mass near his ranch at Stonewall, Texas; an Episcopal service later in the morning in Fredericksburg, Texas; and in the evening vesper services at the First Christian Church in Johnson City, Texas.
Bush's aides say he is a churchgoer, and reporters and cameramen are preparing to join him on Sundays wherever he worships.
Bush surprised many by attending 1988 Christmas services at a black Baptist church in Washington and members of the congregation had to go through an airport-style metal detector to get into the church.
Bush also permitted photographers to enter the church and photograph him and his wife in their pew at the start and end of the service as well as during the carol singing.
President Reagan rarely went to church, explaining he did not want to disturb other members of the congregation who would be subjected to special security precautions.
In the LBJ days, there was not as great a threat of terrorism and such precautions were not instituted, although several Secret Service agents accompanied him to church. Back then, photographers were forced to remain outside the church and to catch Johnson and his family on his arrival and departure.
