THE CONGRESS: The Fateful Vote to Impeach

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argument in wishing the charges to be as clear as possible, both out of fairness to the President and a desire to make the task of the House easier in judging the articles. Yet the nature of the charges against the President is not confined to single acts but often embraces a course of conduct over a span of time involving many acts. To be specific would produce lengthy and com plex articles. The framers of the articles, moreover, did not want to be confined too strictly to each specific claim, since that would limit the evidence that could eventually be used in the Senate.

The specifics would be spelled out in the committee's report.

The long hours consumed in the dispute were turned into a prime-time display of partisan maneuvering. The Nixon sup porters sought to delay a final vote, hoping to discredit and dis courage the majority, perhaps even win back one or two of their strayed Republicans. Since the loyalists were demanding facts, many Democrats used their turn at the microphones to spin out the litany, as they saw it, of Nixon's misdeeds. Most able of all at this was California's Waldie, whose sporadic running narrative was dismissed by Republican Wiggins as "Waldie's fable."

Sandman moved to strike the first paragraph of the Sarbanes articles and threatened to make the same move against eight other paragraphs. When a vote was finally held late Friday night, Sandman's move was defeated by the same 27 to 11 margin (although there was some shifting of sides in the two votes). That took much of the steam out of a peripheral argument that centered on form rather than substance.

The Facts Behind the Charges

By the next day, Sandman, at least, saw little benefit in pur suing the fight over specificity. "The argument was exhausted yesterday," he conceded to the committee, then withdrew his other eight motions to strike portions of the article under consideration. But now, having been harassed for their failure to detail each general complaint against Nixon, the Democrats were more than ready. They turned the tables, introducing motions to strike paragraphs as a means of debating the facts behind each charge.

That was as time-consuming as had been the Republican tactics of the day before, although Democrats argued that the educational value of explaining each charge was worthwhile.

The tactic was led by Flowers, who introduced the strike motion, then yielded his time to sympathetic colleagues. Cohen also took advantage of the situation by securing time to buttress his contention that Nixon had withheld evidence from various Watergate investigators. Sandman protested the reversed situation, complaining that the proceedings were achieving little and boring the viewing public. Nevertheless, some enlightening and sharp exchanges of views on facts of evidence were televised throughout Saturday afternoon and into the evening.

Wiggins and Dennis among the Nixon loyalists were pitted against Democrats George Danielson, Wayne Owens and Hungate. Every time a vote was taken on Flowers' motions to eliminate paragraphs, the proposals lost decisively; most of the time Flowers merely responded "Present," not voting on his own motion. When Sandman found it amazing that Flowers was not voting for his proposals, the Democrat got the laugh of the day by replying, "Well, the caliber