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The close relationship has not changed since Inauguration, and Nixon still calls on Finch for comment on almost any subject that comes across his desk, from the ABM to the downed Korean spy plane and Viet Nam. Finch, characteristically, refuses to tell what either he or the President says. That is one of his strongest ties: the President trusts him totally. "The President knows that when he talks to Finch," says White House Aide Hess, "he's talking to someone who has his best interests at heart." Of all the Cabinet members who telephone the oval office, only two—Finch and Attorney General John Mitchell, who also has close links with Nixon—are answered immediately. The same cannot be said for even the Secretary of State or Defense. It is too early to predict with any certainty, but it is more than possible that Finch will assume the wide-ranging role that Robert Kennedy had in his brother's Administration. It would be surprising if Nixon did not share his burdens with Finch, who is in many ways like a younger brother to the President.
Still, Nixon may not be able to give Finch both the power and the money he needs to become a truly successful Secretary of HEW. He has allowed him to pick almost all of his chief assistants, some of whom would seem more at ease in a Democratic or a Rockefeller Republican Administration. John Veneman, his Under Secretary, has al ways been associated with the liberal wing of California's G.O.P. and was a Rockefeller supporter in 1964. Lewis Butler, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, organized the California Republican League, a group primarily concerned with urban problems.
Dr. James Allen, the incoming Assistant Secretary for Education, was Nelson Rockefeller's education commissioner in Albany and, according to former HEW Secretary John Gardner, the best state education director in the country.
James Farmer, a former national director of CORE, is Assistant Secretary for Administration, and Leon Panetta, a tough civil rights activist, is in charge of the Office for Civil Rights. Thus far, however, Nixon has not backed Finch on the politically delicate appointment of Dr. Knowles as Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs, a matter of considerable importance.
The Two Camps