Nixon Comes Up Short

This week's Watergate headlines could well have been from October, the last time the tapes controversy boiled over. But President Nixon escaped then through a series of firings, charges, media offenses and the diverting of public attention to the Middle East and the energy crisis.

Again this week, Nixon has attempted to shift the emphasis and divert the momentum of the House Judiciary Committee's quickening pace toward impeachment.

Nixon and his counsel, James D. St. Clair, say the 1258 pages of edited Watergate tape transcripts the White House turned over to the Committee in lieu of the 42 subpoenaed tapes will "provide grist for many sensational stories" but make it "totally and abundantly clear" that the president did not "act improperly in the Watergate matter."

Reporters and Judiciary staffers who have spent the past several days pouring over the choppy passages-often rendered meaningless by remarkably convenient uses of (expletive deleted), (unintelligible), (inaudible) and (unrelated material deleted)--are not as impressed that the evidence tells such a story.

The committee voted late Wednesday to send a letter to Nixon saying that the transcripts were not in compliance with their subpoena. At the same time committee members made it clear that they view non-compliance as an impeachable offense and expressed concern that the White House's transcripts of some of the tapes do not coincide with transcripts of the same tapes made by the committee.

The week started out well for the Nixon campaign to head off impeachment: Former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and ex-Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans were acquitted of criminal conspiracy and obstructing justice in connection with a $200,000 contribution to Nixon's reelection campaign from financier Robert Vesco.

Former White House Counsel John W. Dean III was a key prosecution witness in the Mitchell-Stans trial, and Nixon and many Republicans immediately took the offensive to link the jury's verdict with the question of Dean's over-all credibility.

In his Tuesday night speech, Nixon sharply attacked Dean and told a nationwide television audience of his plans to release the tapes' transcripts.

Time is on Nixon's side, and he knows it. The longer he can delay impeachment proceedings, the more chance he has to build a base to fight conviction--through domestic and foreign policy and Congressional fear of making any rash moves too close to next fall's elections. Of course, the Judiciary Committee knows this, too, and Wednesday's muffled threat of the consequences of non-compliance may just be a sign that the Committee is finally flexing its muscles.