Relentless progress towards impeachment

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33512, 18 April 1974, Page 11

Relentless progress towards impeachment

i By

ROLAND DALLAS.

N.Z.P.A.-Reuret correspondent.)

WASHINGTON. April 17. Debate about the political future of President Nixon has shifted from the possibility that he will be impeached to speculation about a date for the Senate trial, what the charges might be, and whether or not the proceedings would be televised. The House of Representatives Judicial y Committee is! seeking to determine whether or not the President should be impeached If it recommends impeachment, a simple majority would be required by the full House to! put the President on trial. 1 which would then be held by the Senate, a two-thirds! majority being needed to! convict and . emove him! from office. Many prominent Demo-i crats including Senator Mikej Mansfield, of Montana, the Majority Leader, and Mr! Wilbur Mills, the influential! chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, say that there are enough votes in the House for impeachment, and some Republican agree in private conversations that “the votes are there" If the relentless progress

■of events towards impeachment continues, the United! States Government could be: paralysed for two months! this summer by the debate! in the House and the trial in! the Senate, and viewers in! ' Ait erica and around the i world might be glued tui their television sets, watch-i J ing the extraordinary spec-! ! taele of the impeachment of I 'an American President. ' Mr Nixon says that he in-i i! tends to carry on as usual,! in spite of the pressures' around him. and insists that ■ he will go to Moscow this, summer, as planned. But. in- ■ evitably, serious questions twill be raised about any : such foreign visits if his. i political standing, damaged' again by the recent dis-! »iclosure of his vast tax debt,; ! continues its catastrophic! decline. ,; One Democratic Congress-: »! man, Mr Leslie Aspin, of; ii Colorado, says he is introducing a resolution! opposing foreign journeys ■I by the President during an rimpeachment trial. As the prospect of impeachment increases, it ap- ■ pears likely that Mr Nixon! !, will face increasing pressure from many sides to resign, uin spite of his repeated . assertions that he will not ustep down Many senators, both Democrats and Republii cans, sav that they would like to avoid having to try! the. President.

The Republican Party i would probably suffer Jess ! political damage if Mr Nixon | resigned than if he was imj peached, and much less damage than if the Senate la(er (found him guilty. At present, the impeach-; • ment process is at ’the level i lof the inquiry in the House; ; Judiciary Committee, and (the committee itself may! begin debate in mid-May. 1 No-one knows how long the ‘committee will discuss the 'charges, but the best guess! is that it will send a report Ito the House of Representatives in June. This vital report.may list any alleged crimes and mis-. . demeanoui for which the President, unaer the American constitution, may be im-i (peached. It might include allegations of Mr Nixon’s! ; connection to several administration scandals including: An official cover-up after i the break-in, planned by I members of the White House staff. of the Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate. The break-in by the White House "plumbers” of the office of the psychiatrist, Di Daniel Ellsberg. who was responsible for the release of the secret “Pentagon Papers". The use of alleged "dirty tricks" planned by White! I House employees during l 1 Mr Nixon's campaign for 1

re-election, including ' the! publication of false-state-ments purporting to come from Senators Edmund Muskie and Hubert Humphrey, both Demo- . crats. ;The disclosure that Mr( Nixon owes nearly half aj million dollars in income: | tax. ;Allegations of a connection between a promise by the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation of SUS3OO,OOO to support the Republican Party’s planned convention at San Diego, California, and a Government anti-trust suit aimed at preventing the I.T.T. from a huge take-' , over bid. Allegations of a possible; connection between a huge: I contribution from milk-' producers to Mr Nixon's re-election campaign, and: a later increase in Govern-; ment milk-price supports. The Judiciary committee may also consider two broader potentially vital importance. Mr Archi-I bald Cox. the special Water-! gate prosecutor dismissed by Mr Nixon last year, has said | that the inquiry should con-; sider if the President did hjs; duty “in seeking out and! facilitating the punishment' of those who have done; wrong in high places,” and the influential Bar Associ-! ation of New York has suggested that at the heart of

limpeachment' is "the deter-l mination — committed by| the Constitution to the two; Houses of Congress — that the office-holder has demon-' strated by his actions that' ;he is unfit to continue in ; office.” i One other issue is a longistanding request by the Judiciary Committee for 42 more White House taperecordings to help its inquiry. The committee is; pressing for a White House! answer, and its chairman, Mr Peter Rodino, says: "Our patience is wearing thin." A subpoena has been served on the President to produce the; tapes by April 25, and if he' fails to hand them over, he may face an additional allegation of contempt of Congress. After the committee’s report has been presented.; 'debate in the full House of, ! Representatives is expected 'to last about, two weeks,! because of a five-minute 1 limit on speeches- in the Chamber of 435 seats. If the voting were for imipeachment, two House members would go to the Senate; iand announce the decision. 'Then the Senate, with Chief; 'Justice Warren Burger of |the Supreme Court presiding ■ would proceed to a trial, (possibly in June or July. Public interest would be 'so intense that the trial iwould almost certainly be ■ televised, according to Sena-

tor Mansfield, who plays 'a (key role in Senate arrangeiments, but a final decision (would be made by the Sen-' ate itself. Senator James Buckley, a. Right-winger from New York State, says that impeachment would "put the Senate into a twentieth-cen-tury Colosseum as the performers are thrown to the (electronic lions.” and he has (urged the President to re-' jsign. James Reston, of the "‘New York Times” fears; 'that “the President will sit (in the well of a Senate ablaze with lights, like an accused criminal in the' idock.” But Walter Pincus, editor of the “New Republic,” a Liberal weekly magazine, is sure that Mr Nixon would (probably follow the precedent. 100 years ago. of President Andrew Johnson, who I did not attend his Senate (trial, and relied on defence lawyers to represent him. Mr Pincus says: “Written; reports of the proceedings could not possibly compare (to the televised hearings of: i Senator Sam Ervin’s Water- ■ gate committee. If the country is divided on impeachment. what better way is there to show rhe strength of our institutions than to .allow .the public to sit in the gallery, as it were, as the ■ system works its will before them?”