■ As the smoke blows away around the White House: Haldeman and Ehrlichman as powerful as ever. A number of their former White House aides have been shifted to positions of importance (assistant secretaries, etc.) in key government departments and agencies. . . . John Mitchell remains influential—although no longer on scene physically. . . . Patrick Buchanan, conservative, continues to assemble the all-important survey of news and opinion the President receives every morning. . . . Howard Phillips, a former YAF chapter president at Harvard (speaker at NR’s Fifth Anniversary Dinner) likely to get Philip Sanchez’ post as director of Office of Economic Opportunity; if so, is expected to pare down its functions. . . . Former Cabinet member Walter Hickel stays in outfield in Alaska— his comeback try failed. . . . Despite White House pressure, Cong. Bob Wilson (R., Calif.) has refused to step down as Chairman of the House Republican Campaign Committee and has been re-elected to the post. White House grumbled that under Wilson’s leadership the GOP gained only 13 House seats last year. . . . Soviet foreign-affairs magazine New Times has weighed in on Nixon’s appointments to Defense. It likes the appointment of Elliot Richardson as Secretary—he’s “a man of moderate liberal trend,” but is aghast at appointment of William Clements as Deputy Secretary, because Clements is “a frank conservative.” . . . George Schultz, having consulted his computers, says Phase II economic controls cost the government $92 million. He feels Phase III will be cheaper.
■ Practically everyone who is anyone in Women’s Lib will be there: At the March 9 to 11 International Tribunal on Abortion in New York City. Honorary Chairwoman, Simone de Beauvoir. Also backing it: Dr. Benjamin Spock, Gloria Steinem of Ms., Congresswoman Bella Abzug, Mary (Mrs. John) Lindsay, Barbara Walters of Today show, author Kate Millett, activist Ti-Grace Atkinson, and—shades of the past and of another tribunal, Bertrand Russell’s War Crimes Tribunal— Russell’s former guru, Ralph Schoen- man. . . . Washington Post in an in- depth story on New York’s abortion law concludes that it will be repealed again this year (last year the New York State Assembly repealed the law but repeal went down before a Rockefeller veto). . . . Among the prominent Catholics supporting the pro-abortionists is Fr. Robert Drinan, the Democratic congressman from Massachusetts. . . . On the contraception front, Frederick Jaffe, an official of Planned Parenthood, says his organization gave out contraceptives to over three million low-income women in 1972 under various federally subsidized programs. Jaffe fears some financial cutbacks.
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