Impeachment: the Crucial Committee
Harrison, S. L.
IMPEACHMENT: The Crucial Committee S. L. HARRISON No issue facing Congress presents a greater challenge or demonstrates the pressures of power politics more clearly than the impeachment...
...Six other Democrats are considered willing to vote for impeachment because of miscellaneous political pressures: Harold D. Donohue, Massachusetts...
...Impeachment is moving forward, if at a sluggish pace...
...Wiggins, a constitutional scholar who is personally appalled at President Nixon's actions, said that the President "could be impeached for under extreme pressure not to divulge any information, to the press or members themselves...
...All members questioned agreed that the President would be subject to impeachment if he were found to have violated criminal law...
...Wayne Hays of Ohio, Chairman of the House Administration Committee: Jack Brooks of Texas, the third-ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and B. F. Sisk of California have all called on President Nixon to resign...
...Significantly, O'Neill did not persuade Albert to go along with the call for resignation...
...A special Oliver Quayle poll reported that most of those questioned were disenchanted with Mr...
...Nixon and believe him guilty of misdeeds in a number of areas...
...Officially, O'Neill is taking no position on impeachment and said that he feels himself to be in the role of a grand juror to hear evidence...
...NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON THE PRESIDENCY, under Horizon editor Charles Mee, Jr., is sending direct mailings to millions across the country with emphasis on "sixty key Congressional districts" where public pressure will help swing wavering Congressmen...
...Despite soundings taken back home during the break between sessions and plummeting polk showing the President at low ebb, many Representatives are undecided about the question of impeachment...
...But behind the scenes the Majority Leader is skillfully playing the role of a conductor leading a symphony as he exerts his influence...
...John F. Seiberling, Ohio, and Robert W. Kastenmeier, Wisconsin...
...He and Chairman Rodino have agreed to withhold possible evidence in the impeachment inquiry from other members of the Judiciary Committee to "prevent news leaks...
...Robert F. Drinan, Massachusetts...
...AMERICANS FOR THE PRESIDENCY, under the direction of Pepsi president and Nixon friend Donald M. Kimball, is buying full-page advertisements in fifty-odd Sunday newspapers with mail-in coupons to indicate support for the President...
...Moving toward a likely floor vote later this session, the procedure is laborious —at times painfully so—as the House attempts to meet its constitutional responsibility...
...AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION, led by national director Representative Don Fraser of Minnesota, is supporting impeachment with mailings and special publications...
...NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR AN EFFECTIVE CONGRESS, under national director Russell Hemenway, is pressuring those Congressmen it supported for election to press for impeachment...
...Delay appears to be an integral part of O'Neill's timetable...
...Teamster president Frank Fitzsimmons is a sponsor of the drive by the "Americans for the Presidency" group...
...COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT THE PRESIDENT, under Othal Brand, is a Texas grassroots group engaged in rallying citizens, through mass telephoning, to support the President...
...Some Representatives feel he is staying out of it privately as well, and leaving the management to O'Neill...
...It was O'Neill, for example, who put the brakes on Drinan's premature resolution for impeachment last July...
...Meanwhile, both Capitol Hill and the White House are eyeing the barometer of public opinion for some idea of the future effect of the impeachment issue on both political parties as the Judiciary Committee prepares for the showdown fight on the House floor...
...Rodino has made positive response to demands for reforms and has demonstrated a sure-handed control over the Committee, especially as it has moved toward weighing the legal grounds for impeachment...
...Waldie, who has steered Wiggins to liberal positions in the past, could exert a similar role on the impeachment issue...
...In response to criticisms of the investigation's shortcomings, Judiciary Chairman Rodino said that he is more interested in making history than headlines...
...Barbara Jordan, Texas...
...Of the twenty-one majority members, six are new to the Committee and five of these are freshmen...
...THE AFL-CIO and the UNITED AUTO WORKERS say the ranks of ten million members support president George Meany's call for impeachment by a six-toone margin...
...Speaker Carl Albert is a cautious man and has managed to stay out of the impeachment issue publicly...
...FAVORING IMPEACHMENT THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION, under Charles Morgan, Jr., is pressing its 256,000 membership to get behind the impeachment drive...
...THE AMERICAN FARM BUREAU endorsed a resolution echoing Vice President Gerald R. Ford's speech at its annual convention...
...Protracted evasion will not benefit a steadily eroding Presidency...
...Jack Brooks, Texas...
...The Committee is a free-wheeling group, fueled by an infusion of liberals, aided by prior members now free from the tight reins of Celler...
...Two-thirds held the opinion that the PresS. L. Harrison is an associate editor of the National Journal...
...Paul Sarbanes, Maryland...
...He added, "Otherwise, the material would be available to the world...
...At least eight Democrats on the Committee are believed ready to vote for impeachment now: John Conyers, Jr., Michigan...
...O'Neill, however, said resignation "would be in the best interests of the nation" since the President "has lost the credibility of the country...
...The Committee is dominated by new faces in this Congress...
...What we don't want is another situation like we had with the [Senate] Watergate committee...
...Charles B. Rangel, New York...
...The key role in the impeachment timetable is being played by Majority Leader Thomas (Tip) O'Neill of Massachusetts...
...It urged Congress to make a speedy decision but declined a stronger position "until it has a better idea of the evidence and charges," according to Farm Bureau spokesman Donald Donnelly...
...Don Edwards, California...
...Joshua Eilberg, Pennsylvania...
...Last month's lopsided House vote to give the Committee broad subpoena power —only four members dissented—was, in part, a tribute to Rodino's spadework...
...Drinan, Edwards, and Waldie submitted resolutions for impeachment earlier...
...The President has insisted he will not resign, and if the White House chooses, it can build up counter-pressure and set in motion a bitter and prolonged battle...
...Waldie, an outspoken advocate of early impeachment, is a close friend of Republican Charles E. Wiggins, California, sixth-ranking minority member on the Committee...
...National opinion samplings by the Harris and Gallup organizations reveal some ambivalent attitudes toward impeachment...
...IMPEACHMENT: The Crucial Committee S. L. HARRISON No issue facing Congress presents a greater challenge or demonstrates the pressures of power politics more clearly than the impeachment process under way in the House of Representatives...
...Wayne Owens, Utah, and Edward Mezvinsky, Iowa...
...Success or failure of the impeachment move centers on the role of the Judiciary Committee, its investigators, and the leadership of the House...
...The Judiciary Committee is committed to drawing up a bill of particulars as free as possible from partisan taint...
...Said Albert: "I would have to wait a long time" before recommending resignation...
...There are active local groups such as Philadelphia's "Commonsense" and Minneapolis' "Prairie Fire...
...Jerome R. Waldie, California...
...An informal survey among most of the Judiciary Committee members reveals that a majority favor impeachment of President Nixon if they find clear evidence of serious misconduct, even if wrongs of a criminal nature do not emerge...
...There is little doubt that the Majority Leader is calling the shots, and playing a canny game of political poker...
...paradoxically, a majority opposed impeachment or removal from office...
...O'Neill and other powerful leaders in the current House hierarchy, including Wilbur D. Mills of Arkansas, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee...
...The Judiciary Committee has internal pressures to contend with as it undergoes awkward transition from the old imperious rule by former chairman Emanuel Celler to a more open style under Peter W. Rodino, Jr., New Jersey Democrat...
...On the Republican side, six of the seventeen members are freshmen...
...We don't intend to try the man [President Nixon] in the newspapers," Judiciary Committee minority leader Hutchinson has said...
...AGAINST IMPEACHMENT FAIRNESS TO THE PRESIDENCY, under Rabbi Baruch Koriff, claims 150,000 members and has raised more than $400,000 through newspaper advertisements and anti-media stickers...
...THE TEAMSTERS UNION and the SEAFARERS INTERNATIONAL are the only major unions that are supporting the President...
...ident could be impeached for a breach of the public trust...
Vol. 38 • March 1974 • No. 3
