A NEW ADMINISTRATION TAKES SHAPE

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Would Nixon prevail on Minnesota Governor Harold LeVander to appoint a Democratic successor? Not just any Democrat, but Hubert Humphrey in particular? After word came that LeVander would not cooperate, Nixon himself called McCarthy while the Senator was lunching at Washington's Sans Souci restaurant to relay the rebuff. Thereupon McCarthy decided to forget about it. At the end of last week, the post was still unfilled.

Ph.D. for Cities

One Democrat who consented to work for Nixon without undue resistance was Urbanologist Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a member of Americans for Democratic Action, former Assistant Secretary of Labor and currently director of the Joint Center for Urban Studies run by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A liberal who sometimes infuriates fellow liberals by his impatience with orthodoxy of any kind (he is skeptical of big federally run programs, but not of heavy federal spending for social purposes), Moynihan, 41, will not occupy a Cabinet post as such. Instead, he will be a presidential aide and chief adviser to a new Cabinet-level Council on Urban Affairs. Nixon described the new body as comparable to the National Security Council. Moynihan will provide the planning and coordinating services, just as Kissinger will do for the NSC. With the President as chair man, the council will include Housing and Urban Development, Health, Education and Welfare, and Transportation. Other department heads will sit in from time to time.

With the possible exception of Laird, Moynihan is easily the most controversial personality Nixon has yet appointed to an important post. He is also likely to be one of the most uncomfortable. He disagrees with the predominant sentiment of the new Ad ministration on some issues, particularly in his support of a role for the Federal Government as the "employer of last resort" of the hard-core unemployed and for a war on poverty with a comprehensive family allowance plan. Nixon publicly acknowledged the differences last week, gamely cracking: "Dr. Moynihan and I agree that what this country needs is a good 500 hamburger." Also, neither Finch at HEW nor Romney at HUD is likely to give ground to the Ph.D.-in-residence if disputes arise. Finch, who is ambitious and has a special rapport with Nixon that Moynihan could never hope to match, is likely to be a particularly tough opponent.

All the principals agree that the 435 separate domestic programs Moynihan disparaged last week as "antiquated" need combing out. Where to go from there, which of the Great Society ventures to keep, which to modify, which to abandon, how fast to go, how much money to invest, how to implement Nixon's goal of relying primarily on private enterprise—all these questions mean problems and potential conflicts.

Yet Nixon's determination to set up the Council on Urban Affairs indicated an awareness of the urgency of city problems that did not always come through during the campaign. Leaders of the

Urban Coalition, whose program is much closer to Humphrey's than to Nixon's, came away from meeting with the President-elect impressed with his sincerity about making the new council work. "If ever there was a thing that was needed," said one, "it is to have these departments pull together. They've been pulling apart for years."

Cabinet