JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Governor Bush was asked about the Lieberman selection this morning at the governor's mansion in Texas. CNN's Chris Black is there and joins us with more. Chris, what did he have to say?</s>CHRIS BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jeanne, it is a hot and steamy day here in Austin, Texas, but if Governor George W. Bush is feeling any heat at all about Vice President Al Gore's selection of Joe Lieberman, he is not showing it. When CNN caught him this morning, as he left the governor's mansion, he just shrugged off our question.</s>QUESTION: What do you think?</s>GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No comment. The vice president makes his selection. He hasn't made his selection yet. It's all rumors, isn't it?</s>MESERVE: Chris, Senator Lieberman's name has been floating around for several days, but was the Bush camp surprised that he was the final selection?</s>BLACK: I think they were surprised. I actually think a lot of Democrats were also surprised too, Jeanne. Joe Lieberman is a very serious man, a highly respected senator, but he's not considered a very -- very strong campaigner or a strong speaker or anything like that. And I think a lot of people thought that the fact that he was an Orthodox Jew might disqualify him. But this early indications from the Bush campaign is they will absolutely not make an issue of his religion. And I understand, from the deliberations, that Al Gore was making that religion never came into the deliberations.</s>MESERVE: Chris Black, thank you.
Election 2000: Bush Aides Claim Common Ground with Lieberman