Avalanche of Appointments

I FIND that up here on top of a mountain, it is easier for me to get on top of the job," remarked President Nixon as he enjoyed the splendid isolation of Camp David after winning reelection. His sojourn stretched on for 2 1/2 weeks, longer than that of any President who has used the retreat, so long that Comedian Alan King drew laughs in his Las Vegas routine by suggesting that the whole point of the election had been "to send a boy to camp." Then, last week, the rumors rumbling down the mountainside turned into a sudden avalanche of appointments for Nixon's second term. All were in keeping with the President's notion that the best way to run an overgrown bureaucracy is to staff it with his own men--proven, competent, completely loyal. The careers of the four key appointees are described on following pages.

Most of the new men owe their eminence to Nixon, by and large; they lack powerful constituencies to fall back on if they happen to run afoul of the President. The most important of the jobs goes to Boston Brahmin Elliot Richardson, who moved from HEW to Secretary of Defense, a post that will fully test his vaunted administrative skills. A combination of shrewdness and steadfastness under fire is expected to pull him through. He sees eye to eye with Henry Kissinger and is not likely to offer any rebuffs on foreign policy. While he lacks the clubby relations with Congress that his predecessor Melvin Laird enjoyed, he has more of an appetite for overall strategy and administrative detail. Balancing the relatively liberal Richardson at Defense--and no doubt adding to his troubles--will be a new Deputy Secretary, William P. Clements, an outspoken Texas oil millionaire who vociferously opposes defense cuts.

Moving into Richardson's old job at HEW will be Caspar Weinberger, currently director of the Office of Management and Budget. Weinberger is less renowned for his social vision than for his budget-cutting proclivities. He is expected to hack away at the overgrown tangle of New Frontier and Great Society programs, many of which are not working the way they were supposed to. His philosophy: "Money isn't the essential element in improving social conditions throughout the country." A man of similar outlook succeeds Weinberger as budget chief. Roy Ash, president of embattled Litton Industries, is charged with applying the latest management methods to Government spending--which means, essentially, spending less. Says a White House staffer: "Ash is going to take a look at the legislation, what its intent was and how it's working. This is going to be a detailed review of all Government spending."

Shifts at the State Department are intended to make it more of a Nixon enterprise. At the same time, officials are hopeful that the new appointments will regain for the State some of the luster it has lost in the Kissinger era. Perhaps out of respect for the gentlemanly way in which he has accepted Henry Kissinger's starring role in foreign policy, William Rogers will stay on as Secretary. But the three key posts just beneath him have been swept clean:

>Kenneth Rush, 62, Nixon's onetime law professor, was named to the No. 2 spot, Under Secretary. Credited with the biggest role in negotiating the Berlin accords last summer, Rush served for a few months as Deputy Secretary of Defense.

>William J. Porter, 58, a widely esteemed member of the Foreign Service, becomes Under Secretary for Political Affairs. He will act as Kissinger's chief contact and diplomatic adviser at State. While serving as chief negotiator at the Paris peace talks, Porter has impressed the President with his grasp of North Vietnamese tactics.

>William J. Casey, 59, the current chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, becomes Deputy Under Secretary for Economic Affairs. Author of several legal reference books, Casey was an activist SEC chief who pursued forceful policies that frequently angered bankers and businessmen. In his new post, he will relay the President's economic views to State and, it is hoped, see that they are carried out.

Since intensive trade talks with both the Europeans and the Russians lie ahead, Nixon has made a special effort to assemble a team that can coordinate economic policies. Too often various departments--State, Treasury, Commerce, Agriculture--have taken conflicting stands on such matters as import quotas and farm-price supports. In an effort to rally everyone behind a common policy, Nixon appointed George Shultz as "coordinator" of economic affairs, both foreign and domestic. Shultz, who will stay on as Treasury Secretary, has a knack for survival. As Secretary of Labor, he witnessed the most inflationary contract settlements in decades; as budget chief, he presided over the biggest federal deficits since World War II; up to the last moment, he resisted wage and price controls. Yet he remains a trusted Nixon adviser with more power than ever.

Odd man out, stylistically, in the new Administration is Labor Secretary Peter Brennan, a lifelong New York Democrat with a rough-and-ready tongue and no apologies for grabbing all he can for the workingman. Nixon reached deep into the labor movement to pluck out Brennan, president of the New York City and New York State Building and Construction Trades Councils. He is the first rank-and-file union member appointed to the post since President Eisenhower chose Martin Durkin, a plumber. But Brennan speaks the President's language on many issues, especially patriotism and the Viet Nam War. His appointment is a sign that the President is serious about keeping a portion of Big Labor in the Republican column.

Although there are plans to trim the White House staff by half, its top operators will stay on the job. H.R. Haldeman will remain as Assistant to the President, chief of the White House staff and policy coordinator. His second in command, John Ehrlichman, will continue to preside over the Domestic Council, which is handling such problems as drug abuse, crime, health research and the energy crisis--a matter of top priority in the second term. Ehrlichman is in the midst of compiling a report on the subject.

The President's mountaintop appointments have a sober clarity: they are meant to give Nixon control of parts of the Government that eluded him in his first term. His selections are expected to be as good at taking orders as at executing them. The group has the look of a tight, no-nonsense team, utterly devoted to the chief--a White House staff writ large.

Turning to the business at hand, the President underscored his determination to spend prudently by ordering a cut of more than half in an $11 billion authorization for building waste-treatment plants, thereby angering Congress, which had earlier passed the bill over his veto. Moving on to Key Biscayne to confer with Shultz and John Connally on a new economic game plan, Nixon was at pains to show that he had picked up a second wind for his second term. A more ebullient, less inhibited Nixon emerged. At a restaurant in Coral Gables, he mingled jovially with the other diners, patting a girl on the cheek and telling her: "You'll always be beautiful because you are blonde." To a dermatologist, he said in mock horror: "Skin and all that. Don't tell me any more about it!" Stopping at an ice cream drive-in after dinner, Nixon chatted with other customers, told the manager: "Your spirits must be up, up, up."

There is no doubt about the high spirits in the Nixon entourage. Nixon's men are beginning to feel at home in the city they used to hate when it was run by Democrats. "Washington might even come to be our town," remarks Pat Buchanan, a presidential speechwriter, who will be given new responsibilities. "Some of our people, the advance units, are even venturing into Georgetown."

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