THE CRISIS: The Quiet-Stall Survival Strategy

Pronounced physically fit and free from any signs of emotional strain after a long-delayed medical checkup, Richard Nixon quickened the tempo of his Watergate survival strategy with a burst of public appearances. At the same time he curtly cut off cooperation with Special Watergate Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, once more reneging on his previous claims that he wanted "all the facts" about the scandal exposed.

The President's dual strategy of stonewalling investigators while diverting attention from Watergate could not, however, obscure two imminent and immensely significant developments:

>The House Judiciary Committee is about to define what it considers to be "impeachable offenses." Almost certainly, its definitions will be broad and will not require evidence of criminal activity by Nixon. As the first step, the committee's Chief Counsel John M. Doar and Minority Counsel Albert Jenner this week will submit a report outlining just what kinds of acts the committee's staff of legal specialists deem to be impeachable. The report is expected to say that betrayals of public trust and gross neglect of official duties fall into the category of the "high crimes and misdemeanors" that are cited in the Constitution as a basis for impeachment (see TIME ESSAY, page 23). The committee will then debate the proposal, possibly along partisan lines.

>Detailed indictments will be issued by one or more of the three Watergate grand juries, almost certainly within a week, charging some of Nixon's closest former aides with illegal acts. Among those likely to be indicted are men on whose testimony the President's own professions of Watergate innocence heavily rest. The first indictments are expected to involve the Watergate wiretapping and its coverup.

Prosecutor Jaworski last week reported the President's intransigence on Watergate evidence to the Senate Judiciary Committee but pledged that failure to get the evidence now will not hold up indictments. The committee will meet this week and may discuss what action, if any, it should take on the Jaworski letter. The committee can do little more than join his protest. It had supported the confirmation of Attorney General William Saxbe only after extracting promises from both the White House and Saxbe that no restrictions would be placed upon Jaworski's pursuit of evidence. The President clearly has now defaulted on that promise.

In his letter to Mississippi Senator James O. Eastland, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jaworski complained that his request for 27 tapes of specific presidential meetings and telephone calls had been denied by Nixon even though "there was no indication that any requested recording is either irrelevant to our inquiries or subject to some particularized (presidential) privilege." While grand juries can proceed without these tapes, Jaworski wrote, "the material is important to a complete and thorough investigation and may contain evidence necessary for any future trials." Jaworski reported that he had promised Nixon's chief Watergate counsel, James St. Clair, that these unfulfilled requests completed his list of documents wanted in his pretrial investigation, but he was nevertheless rebuffed by the White House.