Clearing Kleindienst

The longest Senate confirmation hearings in history came to an anti-climactic end last week. By a seemingly routine vote of 11 to 4, the Senate Judiciary Committee cleared the nomination of Richard Kleindienst as Attorney General for consideration by the Senate.

Thus, after two months of confusing and contradictory testimony about the Justice Department's motives for settling antitrust cases against ITT out of court, only four committee members changed their minds about Kleindienst's fitness for office. Democratic Senators Edward Kennedy, John Tunney, Birch Bayh and Quentin Burdick this time voted no. But their Democratic colleagues, Chairman James Eastland,

Sam Ervin, Philip Hart and Robert Byrd stood pat on aye.

Despite the decisive vote, a bitter debate over confirmation is expected on the Senate floor, although Kleindienst probably will win. The messy affair has tainted many of the witnesses who appeared before the committee, leaving a number of moderate and liberal Republicans uneasy about voting for confirmation. But the party stakes are high, and Democratic opponents do not expect enough G.O.P. defections to defeat Kleindienst.

Amnesia. The committee Democrats had one last inconclusive shot at Kleindienst on the final day of the hearings. They quizzed him mainly about a revelation that Presidential Assistant Peter Flanigan made in a letter last week to the committee. Flanigan wrote that he had discussed the ITT cases with Kleindienst privately at least three times. Kleindienst had earlier denied discussing the matter with Flanigan.

Kleindienst was relaxed and confident in his appearance this time--in sharp contrast to his nervousness when first asked about the ITT affair by the committee in March. It was quite a performance for the nation's chief law enforcement officer. He displayed a highly elusive memory, repeatedly answering with such phrases as "I don't recall ... it made no impression on my memory ... I've got the haziest recollection ... it just doesn't stand out in my memory."

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