THE ADMINISTRATION: Gerald Ford: Off to a Fast, Clean Start

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For almost two weeks, Ford had had a four-man "transition planning team" at work on his behalf. The team's members are all old friends: Scranton; NATO Ambassador Donald Rumsfeld, who had flown to Washington two weeks ago on his own initiative and was asked by Ford to head the team; Interior Secretary Rogers Morton, the former Republican National Committee chairman; and John O. Marsh, a former Democratic Congressman from Virginia. The team was said to be organizing a talent search, but its main task was to advise Ford on how to reorganize the White House staff and streamline its operations. Among the recommendations the team is expected to make to the President this week: drastically slim down the White House bureaucracy, which, under Richard Nixon, grew from 220 to almost 510; reduce the power of the Office of Management and Budget which, under Nixon, had usurped the policymaking functions of many departments and agencies; restore the operating authority of the Cabinet, which had atrophied considerably under Nixon.

Difficult Days. Rumsfeld might eventually replace Alexander Haig as White House chief of staff, but not right away. The President is said to believe that Haig performed an important service to the nation during the difficult last days of the Nixon Administration, and he announced that Haig would be staying on "for the duration." Asked how long that period would be a White House aide amended the phrase to read "for the indefinite future." Nonetheless, several of Ford's friends thought it likely that Haig would leave within a few months, if for no other reason than that they expect his functions to be divided sooner or later among four or five aides. "I don't expect a chief of staff on the Nixon model," said one Ford associate. "There'll be a great deal of access to Ford's door."

Among other appointments announced last week:

> Former Congressman Marsh, 48, as a White House Counsellor.

> Philip Buchen, 58, the President's former law partner, as White House counsel. The once inconspicuous post acquired notoriety when held by John Dean and J. Fred Buzhardt. It will probably regain its invisibility under Ford.

> Jack Hushen, 39, former Washington correspondent of the Detroit News and chief press aide in the Justice Department under Attorney General John Mitchell, as deputy press secretary.

> Rear Admiral William M. Lukash, 43, as the President's personal physician. Dr. Lukash is a specialist in gastroenterology and internal medicine who had been serving as assistant physician to former President Nixon.

Lukash described the President as an unusually healthy 61-year-old. "I'm blessed with a patient who has an understanding of the importance of physical fitness. He'll make my job easy." Without a White House swimming pool (the former one was turned into a press room by Nixon) for his 40 daily laps, the President will have to find another form of exercise. Says Ford: "The Oval Office seems very confining. I'd have to go to Burning Tree for golf, or to Camp David. I won't have a Key Biscayne or a San Clemente, but we will go to Vail [Colorado] to ski over the holidays."