Washington's Pick-a-Name Game

"Speculation on appointments is premature," warned Jody Powell, President-elect Jimmy Carter's press secretary. That has not discouraged anyone so far. The guessing game about changes in top Government jobs is being played at lunch, over the phone, at dinner parties, in health-club saunas and locker rooms. There are short lists and long lists. The possibilities are almost endless, since virtually nobody but Jimmy Carter--and maybe Rosalynn--knows what Carter is going to do.

Most buzzed about is the Secretary of State position. The names suggested most often as successors to Henry Kissinger: New York Lawyer Cyrus Vance, 59, a well-regarded former Deputy Secretary of Defense with strong roots in the Eastern foreign policy establishment; J. Paul Austin, 61, chairman of Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co., whose executive skills impressed Carter when the President-elect was Georgia's Governor; and Maine's Senator Edmund Muskie, 62. Former Under Secretary of State George Ball, 66, is another oft-mentioned possibility, but he has run into strong Jewish opposition for suggesting an imposed Middle East solution through a U.S.-Soviet-sponsored conference.

A leading candidate for National Security Adviser is Columbia's Zbigniew Brzezinski, 48, a major foreign affairs adviser to Carter during the campaign. But former Secretary of State Dean Rusk, a law professor at the University of Georgia, who met with Carter at week's end, is pushing Benjamin Read, 51, who earned Rusk's respect as his top executive assistant during the difficult Viet Nam War policy days. Another possibility: Henry Owen, 56, a political and military affairs specialist and president of the Brookings Institution. Former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, 47, fired by Ford, has impressed Carter. But just where the brilliant if abrasive Schlesinger might fit is unclear.

If Vance misses State, he is considered a possible choice for Defense Secretary. So are Owen, Caltech President Harold Brown, 49, and Paul Warnke, 56, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense with a strong liberal following. Warnke's chances decreased, however, when he discussed budget cuts in Plains last summer. (Carter is reported to have said curtly: "I thought you were talking about being Secretary of Defense, not antiDefense Secretary.")

Since Carter made a campaign issue out of criticizing FBI Chief Clarence Kelley, a new head there seems certain. Most often mentioned is former New York City Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy, 56. One possible holdover, the rumors have it, is CIA Director George Bush, 52, whose lucid intelligence briefing impressed Carter. Besides, if Bush went, the CIA would be getting its third director in a year.

Big Labor has two favorites, both being pushed by AFL-CIO Boss George Meany: Harvard's John Dunlop, 62, to return to the Labor Department he headed effectively until he quit in a policy dispute with President Ford, and U.A.W. President Leonard Woodcock, 65, to become Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. Andrew Brimmer, 50, one of the nation's most distinguished economists--and a black--is considered a possible Secretary of the Treasury. So, too, are Peter Peterson, 50, a Commerce Secretary dropped by former President Nixon; Robert Roosa, 58, an Under Secretary of the Treasury in the Kennedy Administration; and Arthur Okun, 47, who was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Lyndon Johnson. Charles Schultze, 51, Budget Director under Johnson, has been mentioned for Treasury or for CEA chairman. A possibility for Director of the Office of Management and Budget is Alice Rivlin, 45, head of the impressive new budget arm of the Congress.

Some of the speculation will end this week, when Carter will announce part of his White House staff. Campaign Manager Hamilton Jordan, 32, will be named as one key assistant. Greg Schneiders, 29, who rose from luggage hand to valued adviser in the Carter campaign, will also be an assistant of some sort. Jody Powell, 33, will continue as Carter's press secretary. But Carter has warned against expecting any Cabinet announcements until some time in December.

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