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THE LONG ISLAND NEWSPAPER
RAN
SPECIAL
REPRINT(A cross-section of recet Newsday stories and features
about the people and politics of the nation's capital.)
Wednesday, July 31, 1974the
Full House
Next Stoi
By Myron S. Waldman
Newsday Washington Bureau
, Washington - The gavel ended the
House Judiciary Committee's impeach-
ment torment at 11:08 PM. Congress-
men rose and moved slowly toward the
humid Washington night. -
"Oh my God, am I glad it's over
with," Rep. Walter Flowers (D-Ala.)
said. "Let the train go to somebody
else's station."
It is not over. The next stop for the
impeachment train is the floor of the
full House. All the members of the
Judiciary Committee will have to meet
.it.
In the corridor outside the hearing
room, Rep. John Seiberling (D-Ohio),
a pro-impeachment liberal, stopped
Rep. Charles Wiggins (R-Calif.), a
leader of the Nixon loyalists. "Chuck,
you did a fine job," Seiberling told
Wiggins. "We're not through yet,
Wiggins replied. "There's battles left
to fight."
Already, the committee is preparing
for those fights on the floor of the
House. Four rooms, two in the Rayburn
House Office Building and two in the
Cannon House Office Building, are be-
ing equipped with tape-playing devices
so that all the congressmen can hear the
recordings of presidential conversations.
They will hear the same tapes that
helped convince the majority of the
Judiciary Committee to recommend
three articles of impeachment to the
full house. Letters will be sent to all
435 House members inviting them to
listen to the tapes, starting Monday at
the latest. ,
Wiggins and the other Nixon loyal-
ists will have to contend with more
than the tapes. The committee coali-
tion of four Republicans and three
conservative southern Democrats that
was so influential in writing the im-
peachment articles will not disband.
Rep. William Cohen (R-Maine) said
that the bloc will meet again within
three or four days to consider the stra-TIME OF DECISION
A ~
tegy needed in pressing the case for
impeachment to the full House.
Last night, Rep. Tom Railsback
(R-Ill.), another coalition member,
said that the votes of the four Re-
publicans in the group, plus the votes
of three other Republicans on the com-
mittee who voted for at least one im.
peachment article, will weigh heavily
in the House. He figured that the fact
that seven committee Republicans had
voted for impeachment will result in
at least 60 of the 187 House Republi-
cans following their example.
The three southern Democrats, led
by Rep. James R. Mann of South Caro-
lina, will also be at work to convince
the 74 southern Democrats in the
House that they should vote for im-
peachment. And Rep. M. Caldwell But-
ler (R-Va.), who voted for impeach-
ment, is a respected conservative who
will have a great impact on his own
state's delegation and beyond.
The coalition held for impeachment
on the first two-and most important-
articles. With the exception of Rep.
Ray Thornton (D-Ark.), it deserted
Rep. Robert McClory (R-Ill.) when he
introduced the third impeachment arti-
cle dealing with the President's refusal
to comply with the committee's sub-
penas.
That article passed all the same, but
two other impeachment articles lost by
wide margins, with none of the seven
members of the coalition voting for
either one. Last night, Railsback pre-
dicted that the full House would follow
the coalition's example, approving thefirst two impeachment articles and
rejecting McClory's.
The impeachment Democrats on the
committee were not idle yesterday. In
the last day of the impeachment in-
quiry, their assault on the President
became a matter of timing.
There were two articles of impeadh-
men'et't after McClory's was ap-
proved by a vote of 21-17. Neither was
ikely to pass. One article sought to
impeach the President because of the
secret bombing of Cambodia; the other
to impeadh him for income4ax evasion
and improvements on his private prop-
erty at government expense.
The income-tax article was scheduled
to be brought up in the afternoon; the
Cambodia article in the evening. But
the committee's Democrats figured that
the national television audience, would
be far more interested in hearing about
the President's taxes than an old war,
even if it had been conducted in secret.
So in the afternoon, they caucused
and decided to bring up Cambodia first.
"Richard Nixon's tax returns and the
improvements of his houses are cer-
tainly more entertaining than reruns on
the other channels" was the way one
Democratic staff aide put it. And more
entertaining than Cambodia? "You
said that, I didn't," the aide grinned.
Rep. Charles Sandman (R-N.J.), who
became something of a folk hero to
Nixonites watching the proceedings,
did not let the switch go on unnoticed.
After taxes came up at 8:33 PM, Sand-
man noted:
"This bunch of baloney was sup-
pcsed to be taken up this afternoon.
But there is a bigger audience tonight
than this afternoon."
Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Tex.), who
as chairman of a House government
operations subcommittee had investi-
gated the work done on Nixon's homes,
was unperturbed by Sandman's assault.
He said it reminded him of the mother
who gave her son two neckties for his
birthday. "He came down the next
morning with one of them on," Brooks
recounted, "and his mother said, 'Son,
you didn't like the other tie?'" Sand-
man laughed.COPYRIGHT 1974, NEWSDAY, INC., LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK
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[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, July - September, 1974], book, 1974; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616583/m1/93/: accessed May 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Southern University.