WASHINGTON — On Independence Avenue, inside a gray brutalist building regarded by many as this city’s ugliest , Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has constructed a monument to his family.

Down the royal-blue-carpeted, brightly lit hallway to his private offices, framed historic American flags are interspersed with pennants featuring the campaigns and slogans of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and father, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy — with phrases like “A Time For Greatness: Kennedy for President” and “Welcome Jack.”

Inside the secretary’s suite, steps from the homage to his Democratic forebears, the man himself commands an empire of roughly 62,000 workers (even after the massive cuts this year) with the largest budget of any federal agency. At 71, RFK Jr. has arrived as America’s le

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