THE NIXON CLIQUE TAKES OVER

Each day of the week cyphers. morrow is his 60th White House correspon- One White House confer- one reporter asked.

Hence last week serves to show dents file into the Press the conspiratorial-style of govbriefing room to ask ques- ernment Nixon is pursuing. porters had been asking for a tions about what the Pre- It was conducted by Gerald I. Warren, who is authorized sident is up to. Since the to say nothing. Of this partielection, these affairs cular briefing, White House Press aides had promised the have been less enlighten- reporter Carroll Kilpatrick information 'tomorrow'.

said: ing than ever. 'Yesterday Mr Warren de- 'BERLIN WALL' Every question is stone- clined to answer almost all walled by smiling public re- questions asked him, even as lations men from the Nixon to the President's plans for the if the mail had been counted, personal staff. 60th birthday today.' Even the capitalist news- When a reporter asked about A disgusted newsman walked papers have started to rail out saying: 'We are getting no celebrations for Nixon's birthagainst the secrecy of the day, Warren replied: "Tomorinformation and haven't for administration and its leader. row is his 60th birthday and I the last week on any subject.' The advocate of the open just don't know exactly where society' has become a recluse he will have dinner with his small circle of unelected aides whose ideas and movements family on that occasion.' who front for him with the are fed through a battalion of 'Are you confident that Press and television. This the Cabi singer, H. R. Haldeman, John policies D. Ehrlichman and Ronald installing Zeigler. To the Washington as a sur Press corps they are known as able to n the 'Berlin Wall'. This i This foursome showed their the pack undoubted strength last week elevated when Herb Klein, Nixon's dir- net. The: as Casj signed'. The more accurate human reading of the situation is that for nat Klein was forced out because James 1 he was 'too soft' with the developm recently newshand and he shared with qualificat 'Supremely,' Warren replied. 'Great Sc For more than a week re- frustrations of no news from a Nixon the President. 'Jim L breakdown of Nixon's mail, for Haldeman, Nixon's chief of programr and against, the bombing of stafi, and Zeigler, the White A sim North Vietnam. Each time the House spokesman, are not for Wein sor, libe advertising industry. Since the Richardsı election Nixon has given only White F one Press conference and he with pol moves unobtrusively from his at the to Asked on this particular day remote residence at Camp An aic David to his summer retreat net mem Warren said: 'No, we haven't." advantagı by a group of security men. able' and There has scarcely been a "Thus,' tl Cabinet meeting and through- noted, out the bombing campaign the while Cr Nixon is now enclosed by a only persons he consulted were Nixon he Kissinger and other members ment to of the 'Berlin Wall'. Nixon has policy an been stealthily elbowing out be tightl net as the source of and programmes and ; his handpicked men ora-executive accountlobody but himself. s most noticeable in of nonentities he has to his reshuffled Cabise include such people par Weinberger at resources, Earl Butz ural resources and ynn for community lent. When a reporter asked about Lynn's ions to launch the sciety in the ghettoes, aide said cynically: ynn is there to stop nes, not start them.' ilar role is envisaged iberger. His predecesral' Republican Elliot on antagonized the louse by disagreeing icy decisions reached le said the new Cabibers had the decided e of being 'dependI all had 'low profiles'. he 'New York Times' 'working in stealth ongress recessed, Mr as rebuilt the governmake sure domestic id operations will now ly controlled for the Whi OI been oper sider time Novi oper of th $31n size than persi Offic arate Nati tunit Hou Casp befo: tions 1972 rate' SP Tł ted : Hou: anci:

aide to t inclu

On the face of it there has one of the many aides who been little 'stealth' about the have been hired by the adminoperation. Nixon has deter- istration without budgetary minedly been creating his pre- permission.

time. Since he took office in cently conducted a spot-check November 1968 the cost of of White House offices it operating the Executive Office found that there were more of the President has risen from than 80 employees not shown $31m to $71m. Meanwhile the on the payroll records of either size of the office has • more the National Security Council than doubled from 250 to 510 of the Domestic Council staff. persons. Who are they and who pays Within the vast Executive their salaries? urce of les and ed men ccountself. able in he has d Cabipeople jer at 1 Butz S and munity 'eporter Lynn's ch the hettoes, cally:

them.' visaged 'edeces1 Elliot :a the greeing reached v Cabi• ic.:.

White House'.

sidential bureaucracy for some Office-which includes 18 separate groups ranging from the National Security Council to the Office of Economic Opportunity-the vital core of White House staff has grown steadily. Casper Weinberger testified before the House appropriations subcommittee in May 1972 to give 'candid and accurate' figures of staff requirements of the White House.

The administration reques House staff detailees. He was When one newspaper reMany Congressmen have been quick to criticize the growth of the White House staff.

A report by the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee prepared under the direction of Representative Morris K. Udall, a Democrat from Arizona, contrasted Nixon's reorganization pledge 'to reduce duplication, to monitor preformance and to issinger, une ecled alde, c'oses! undermined the traditional decision-making rules and inter-relationship of the other branches of our government.' Udall charged.

'Not only has this affected the powers of Congress, but it has unquestionably eroded the responsibilities of the cabinet and the stabilizing controls of the civil service.' $100m A YEAR The staff figures, with or without details, do not include any of the 1,280 Secret Service agents, the 805 members of the Executive Protective Service, the uncounted numbers of military personnel detailed to the White House mess and to the medical care of the President and his staff, a score of army sergeants who chauffeur Nixon's principal assistants, 15 archivists who are preparing files for the Nixon library and advisor lo I xon. Lel:: in 1 oscow. I cover story this week:

'The US is facing a constitutional crisis. That branch of government that most closely represents the people is not yet broken, but it is bent and in danger of snapping. A Congress intended by the framers of the Constitution to be the nation's supreme policy setter, lawmaker and reflector of the collective will have been forfeiting its power for years.

'Now a President, in the aftermath of a landslide, seems intent upon further subordinating it and establishing the White House ever more firmly as the centre of federal power. In an age of growing complexity a strong presidency is necessary. But not a presidency made strong with the usurped powers of another branch.' 'Time' magazine's arguments flow from the most reactionary concepts. The Congress January 16, US imperialism worsens and the working class becomes more combative, all the pretences of bourgeois democracy must be stripped away. Just as Nixon increases the size and strength of his bureaucracy to meet the coming social conflicts, so Edward Heath has begun taking tentative measures in the same direction.

He has brought paid Conservative Party officials into Whitehall to work alongside his ministers; he has placed leaders of big business in charge of departmental committees and is in the process of creating an 'inner-executive' to wield presidential-style powers.

The long-term implications of the Heath scheme are being drafted by Lord Rothschild, head of the Cabinet Think Tank'. In Britain and the US the plans to introduce dictatorship and repression can be halted only by a massive