Bush faces cabinet challenges

The Labour Secretary is accused of employing an illegal immigrant

Questions have emerged about George W Bush's recently appointed labour secretary, Linda Chavez, giving Democrats new ammunition for the upcoming Senate confirmation hearings.

It has been disclosed that in the early 1990s, Ms Chavez provided housing and financial aid to a Guatemalan woman, who was in the United States illegally.

The Bush transition team has acknowledged that Ms Chavez had allowed the woman to stay in her home, but said Ms Chavez did not know at the time about the woman's status.

The team has also come to the aid of defence secretary nominee Donald Rumsfeld, after a US newspaper printed a conversation between him and former President Richard Nixon, in which Mr Nixon made pejorative comments about blacks.

Mr Rumsfeld can be heard replying to Mr Nixon

The unwelcome distractions have surfaced less than two weeks before Mr Bush takes office.

In an interview with American TV station CBS, Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Tom Daschle, said the US Senate needed to look into "some of the most controversial" nominations.

Impact played down

"Today it is an open question about whether some of these nominees will be confirmed," he said.

Ms Chavez is already one of Mr Bush's most controversial cabinet choices because of what some people view as her deeply conservative views and opposition to increasing the minimum wage.

I think these are troubling issues

Senator Barbara Boxer

Democrats are questioning whether she is fit for the job of overseeing the nation's labour laws, and have promised to examine the case during her confirmation hearings.

The Bush camp, however, has been playing down the impact of the report.

Nixon tapes

Democrats on Monday stepped up their attacks against Mr Rumsfeld, in the wake of the Chicago Tribune report of a conversation with Mr Nixon 29 years ago.

In the tapes, which had been preserved on tape in the National Archives, the former president makes a series of characterisations about blacks, to which Mr Rumsfeld responds in a way that could be construed as agreement.

But Bush transition spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said Mr Rumsfeld - who served in the Nixon administration - did not agree with any of Mr Nixon's comments then and does not now.

He said that even a casual listen to the hour-long tape demonstrates that Mr Rumsfeld's voice changes and tightens once Mr Nixon starts speaking in such a vein.

According to Mr Fleischer, the defence secretary elect had been "talkative and expressive," until then and that he was not agreeing with Mr Nixon, merely acknowledging him.