THE CONGRESS: The Fateful Vote to Impeach

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Jerome Waldie attempted wry wit. Texas Democrat Bar bara Jordan loomed and boomed like some elemental force, her cultivated accent and erudition surprising each time she spoke.

If there seemed a kind of fastidious smirkiness in Delbert Latta, then by contrast Fish and Mayne, Kastenmeier and Mann exuded a quiet and impressive earnestness and integrity. (Kastenmeier displayed probably the most imposing arched eyebrows since John Barrymore's.) For all their differences, the commit tee members clearly seemed to share the camaraderie of ship mates on an awesome voyage that none had chosen but all must take, to whatever end.

How Specific Must an Article Be?

In the general debate, the first sidetracking stemmed from an attempt by Republican McClory to delay proceedings for ten days if the President would promptly agree to give the House Judiciary Committee the same tapes he had been ordered by the Supreme Court to yield to Federal Judge John J. Sirica for use by Special Prosecutor Jaworski in the impending Watergate cover-up trial. Actually, McClory conceded that he had little expectation of a favorable response from Nixon. McClory's tactic was aimed at strengthening a contempt of Congress article against the President he planned to introduce. The motion was defeated 27 to 11 in the first rough test of the committee's voting lineup.

As direct debate on the Sarbanes amendment got under way, the committee fell into a second argument over just how specific or general the articles of impeachment ought to be. The Nixon loyalists, sometimes joined by more moderate Republicans, insisted that the proposed articles were much too vaguely phrased.

Democratic defenders of the articles contended that the supporting facts should — and would — be included in the committee's final report and not jammed into the brief impeachment articles. The spirited argument had some light moments. Insisting that inferences can always be drawn from any given fact, Hungate suggested that "if someone brought an elephant through that door and I said 'That's an elephant,' someone would say, 'That's an inference. It could be a mouse with a glandular condition.' " There were sharp personal exchanges as the commit tee grew restive. Latta irrelevantly criticized Counsel Jenner for having publicly supported the repeal of antiprostitution legis lation, and Latta in turn was scolded by Ohio Democrat John Seiberling for his improper remarks.

The opposing viewpoints on specificity were best expressed by Sandman and Jordan. Growled Sandman: "Why, even a simple parking ticket has to be specific ... yet you want to replace that [requirement] and say it doesn't apply to the President.

Why, that's ridiculous!"

Jordan (referred to as "the gentlelady" by Rodino) noted that the President was not being deprived of any information or due process. His lawyer James St. Clair had been permitted to sit through all the committee hearings on the evidence, receive all the documents given committee members, and cross-examine witnesses. "That was due process," she said. "Due process tri pled, due process quadrupled." The Nixon loyalists, she charged, were using "phantom arguments, bottomless arguments."

The proponents of more specific articles had a plausible