Moving Toward Decision Time

"We've arrived at the hard core," said a staff member of the Senate Watergate Committee as he looked forward to the return of Congress next week after the extended Christmas recess. With the Senate investigation of Watergate nearly completed, Congress is finally facing the crucial question: to impeach or not to impeach Richard Nixon. GEORGE TAMES--Last week, while most of their congressional bosses were vacationing and sampling public opinion, staffers of the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate Watergate Committee were compiling evidence that will eventually supply the answer to the question.

All week there was uncharacteristic bustle at the former Congressional Hotel on New Jersey Avenue, now an annex to the House office building complex. There John Doar, chief counsel of the Judiciary Committee, and his staff of 40 were setting up shop. Telephones were installed, reams of paper piled up, most of it transcripts and computer printouts from the Ervin committee. But there were also ample contributions from other congressional committees that have been Investigating aspects of Watergate. By week's end all that was missing was a paper shredder, an item requested, but vetoed by the House Administration Committee on the ground that paper shredders had already figured too prominently in the Watergate scandal.

Sifting and evaluating all the material will be an eye-wrenching task. Says Frances O'Brien, administrative assistant to Peter Rodino, Judiciary Committee chairman: "We have to take everything that has been given to us, break it down into areas, decide what we have, what it means, whether more is needed, and how we should go about getting any more." One area of documentation is off limits to the committee. Though Doar has had two amiable meetings with Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, he has not been able to obtain any information. All pertinent White House material received by Jaworski is to be turned over to the grand jury. From that point, it is in the hands of the court and is not available to the House or Senate committees.

Appointments to top staff positions have been made. As minority counsel the Republicans chose Albert Jenner, 66, a prominent G.O.P. attorney in Chicago who served as assistant counsel for the Warren Commission investigation of John Kennedy's assassination. He may provide scant partisan comfort to Nixon. In a TV interview, he said that "certainly within some areas the President should be responsible for the actions of aides," even if he did not know what the aide was doing.

With no firm deadline but with pressure from Republicans and some Democrats to make haste, Doar expects to issue an interim report by late February. The report must first of all define what are impeachable offenses within the Constitution's "high crimes and misdemeanors" rubric; then it must determine whether the President might be guilty of any of the offenses. Once the report is presented, the Judiciary Committee has to decide whether to proceed further with an impeachment inquiry--almost a foregone conclusion. A more critical problem for the committee is whether to depend on evidence gathered by others or to undertake an original investigation of its own. In either case, the committee would probably request and get the power to issue subpoenas from the House.

On the basis of the inquiry, the 38 members of the committee (21 Democrats, 17 Republicans) would vote on whether to issue a recommendation for impeachment to the full House. Rodino has promised to try to reach that point by April or May. If the recommendation is issued, the House would vote on it after a debate that might easily last several weeks. A simple majority would then suffice to impeach the President and send his case to the Senate for trial; conviction would require a two-thirds vote. Throughout the process, both Houses of Congress will be keenly attentive to public opinion. If there appears to be sufficient evidence and sentiment in favor of impeachment and conviction, Nixon might well be removed. But long before that happened, he would be more likely to resign rather than suffer the ignominy of being ousted from office.

In its offices in the Dirksen building, the Senate Watergate Committee staff was at work as well. The last two critical items of unfinished business on the committee's agenda are the milk case and the unexplained campaign contribution of $100,000 from Howard Hughes to Presidential Pal Bebe Rebozo. Staffers are presently digging into both incidents and lining up witnesses.

A Compromise. Last week committee lawyers appeared in federal court in Washington to file a brief in support of subpoenas issued to the White House in July requesting five tapes of conversations between the President and John Dean, and other unspecified documents. The White House has ten days to reply, and a final ruling is at least a month away. The committee has also issued subpoenas for more than 500 other tapes and documents. After an initial outraged reaction, the White House suggested last week that it might compromise if the number is reduced.

Despite unfinished business, some members of the committee, including even Republican Lowell Weicker, who has been most critical of the Administration, question whether the hearings should be resumed. Unless there is clear evidence linking the President to any illegal activity, Weicker feels that continued hearings would be futile, and that the investigation would best be left in the hands of Jaworski and the House Judiciary Committee. Chairman Sam Ervin has publicly indicated he might agree to cancel further hearings, but if he decides to agree with the staff that the hearings should continue, he likely could carry the committee with him. "I'd say there is a 90% chance that the hearings will be held," says Rufus Edmisten, deputy chief counsel.

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