THE CONGRESS: The Fateful Vote to Impeach

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In rapid-fire rebuttal, many of the committee Democrats in their turn rattled off specific presidential acts and conversations, particularly from the President's tapes, that they considered solid evidence. But the most effective general reply was offered by Republican Cohen. "Conspiracies are not born in the sunlight of direct observations," he said. "They are hatched in dark recesses, amid whispers and code words and verbal signals, and many times the footprints of guilt must be traced with a search light of probability, of common experience." Moreover, circumstantial evidence is admissible in trials, Cohen noted, and it is often persuasive. He cited as an example that someone who had gone to sleep at night when the ground was bare and awoke to find snow on the ground could reasonably conclude that snow had fallen while he slept.

The Pro-Impeachment Republicans

Some members used then— opening statements to make impassioned pleas for articles of impeachment that seemed un likely to win support from a majority of their colleagues. Father Robert Drinan, a Massachusetts Democrat, argued that it was wrong not to cite Nixon for the secret bombing of Cambodia just because it would not "fly" or "play in Peoria." Asked Dri nan: "How can we impeach the President for concealing a burglary but not for concealing a massive bombing?" Surprisingly, New York Republican Henry Smith, considered wholly against impeachment, indicated that the Cambodia bombing was the one Nixon offense that he might consider impeachable. Mezvinsky urged that Nixon be cited for income tax evasion.

Running through Wednesday night and most of Thursday, the opening statements publicly confirmed Republican defections from the President that had become apparent in the closed-door strategy sessions on the eve of the debate. Demonstrating a willingness to impeach on at least one mainstream article were Illinois' Robert McClory, Railsback, Fish, Butler and Cohen. In a speech that was at first tantalizingly noncommittal, Froehlich hinted that he might go along with an article on the obstruction of justice in the Watergate coverup.

Hogan followed his previous attack on Nixon with another assault. When Nixon and his aides discussed Watergate Burglar E. Howard Hunt's demands for money in the celebrated March 21, 1973, White House conversation, Hogan protested: "The President didn't, in righteous indignation, rise up and say, 'Get out of here. You are in the office of the President of the United States. How can you talk about blackmail and bribery and keeping witnesses silent?' . . . And then throw them out of his office and pick up the phone and call the Department of Justice and tell them there is obstruction of justice going on. But my President didn't do that. He sat there, and he worked and worked to try to cover this thing up so it wouldn't come to light."

Most of the pro-impeachment Republicans seemed to feel that the voters would stand by them. Hogan reported that as of last Friday his telephone calls from Marylanders were running 1,072 to 634 in favor of his decision. Butler's early mail ran about 50-50, but he also received vicious and obscene hate calls at his Roanoke home, upsetting his wife June. At week's end Butler requested an unlisted