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No matter how it was handled, the announcement would have been anticlimactic. It had been common knowledge for almost a month that Simon would succeed George Shultz as Treasury Secretary-and the announcement by no means decides Simon's backstage battle with Budget Director Roy Ash for pre-eminence in economic policymaking. As the new Treasury chief (Senate confirmation seems certain), Simon may eventually wield more influence than any other economic official. But Ash has secured a promise from Nixon of an expanded role in policy formation.
In addition, Simon pointedly is not being named to three other top economic posts held by Shultz. John Dunlop, director of the Cost of Living Council, will take over from Shultz as chairman of that group—a rather empty honor since COLC will lose most of its power when wage-price controls expire April 30. Shultz's job as Assistant to the President for economic affairs will be left unfilled. Nixon himself will succeed Shultz as chairman of the Cabinet-level Council on Economic Policy and, as Warren put it, "intends to play an increasingly expanded role in the coordination of economic policy." Simon will, however, inherit still another Shultz job: chairman of the economic "troika"—the Treasury Secretary, Budget Director and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers—that meets periodically to advise the President. That post should give Simon a slight edge over Ash.
Simon is being replaced as energy chief by John Sawhill, a 37-year-old former budget official whom Simon chose as his deputy when the Federal Energy Office was created last December. Simon will probably continue to set broad energy policies, while Sawhill will oversee day-to-day operation of the FEO.
Phone Demon. Simon enters the Cabinet after only 17 months in Washington; Shultz spirited him away from a Wall Street bond-trading career that had made him a millionaire to take the No. 2 job at Treasury in December 1972. In that post, and later as energy czar, the 46-year-old Simon acquired a reputation for candor, accessibility to the press and to Congress, and a fierce independence. He has clashed publicly with other top Administration officials, and even found himself at odds with the President last winter when Simon ridiculed some energy-crisis observations by the Shah of Iran, whom Nixon immediately defended. A demon on the telephone, Simon sometimes makes more than 100 calls in a single evening. At a champagne party in his honor last week, his FEO staff presented him with a toy telephone.