The Ford Cabinet

It is difficult to comprehend how an experienced politician like Vice President Gerald Ford could misunderstand the ground rules when chatting on an airplane with a friendly reporter. But that was Ford's excuse in conceding that he was the source of an article by The New Republic's John Osborne about who would be in any future Ford Administration Cabinet. While admitting the article's accuracy, Ford said that he thought the conversation was off the record. Ford would keep Henry Kissinger as Secretary of State, according to Osborne. He would also retain Secretary of Labor Peter Brennan, Interior Secretary Rogers Morton and HUD Secretary James Lynn. He is undecided about others, especially Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger. Ford fears that Schlesinger would not be effective in dealing with Congress.

The Osborne article also reports that Ford is often "driven close to distraction" by President Nixon's newly developed tendency to waste his own time and that of others in Oval Office chitchat. This has sometimes led Ford "to break off their conversations." But Ford contends that he was misunderstood; he meant that he feels he sometimes takes up too much of the President's time and thus seeks a gracious way to cut such conversations short.

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