Silence as a Statement

By Hugh Sidey

THE PRESIDENCY

There are important changes now occurring in the chemistry of Watergate.

Richard Nixon's new low in the Gallup and Harris polls is only a national manifestation of what has been cropping out on a smaller scale across the nation. At first, back in January when the weekly Penny Press of Peoria, 111. (Nixon's favorite political town) took a sample that showed 51% wanted the President impeached, White House aides could hardly contain their disbelief and contempt. It is apparent now that Peoria was not a freak.

In four months, the share of people surveyed by the statewide Minnesota poll who want Nixon to resign has gone from 36% to 47%--just two points below those who want him to continue in office. Asked if they felt that Nixon had broken his oath of office, 58% said yes. In California, the Field Poll found 46% believed that Nixon should be impeached, an additional 24% felt that he should resign, and only 23% said that the investigations should be dropped.

This new erosion at the grass roots has been felt in Congress. Those who have always talked tough are tougher than ever. Connecticut's Lowell Weicker went back to New Milford last week roaring: "The nation has taken offense to being treated like idiots ... If the explanations and illogical statements emanating from the White House during the past months had come from anyone other than a President of the United States they would have been labeled for what they are--trash."

Some legislators who have kept a strained silence are beginning to break, like New York's Senator James Buckley.

The silences on the Hill are also significant. Senate Republican Leader Hugh Scott, who a few weeks ago was proclaiming Nixon's innocence, is in anguish. His voice in defense of the President is muted. Friends say that he now believes it is inevitable that Nixon will be impeached. G.O.P. Whip Robert Griffin has been a troubled man for months. Some of his colleagues would not be surprised to see him add his voice to the rising chorus for resignation.

It may be the ultimate irony of this tragedy that Nixon's defensive maneuvers will assure his resignation or impeachment. His frantic movement round the nation may build warm emotion among those who still stand behind him. But apparently the televised spectacles anger the disbelievers all the more and turn some of the waverers into enemies. If Nixon were a widely loved or respected figure, say the poll takers, such appearances might evoke sympathy. But in this atmosphere his illogical explanations of events, his nonanswers to critical questions, and the familiar litanies of what he has done for the country tend to deepen the disillusion.

There also is evidence that while Presidential Lawyer James St. Clair's intricate legal tactics of delay and noncooperation may be admirable for a normal defendant in a courtroom, they are devastating to the President of the U.S. The longer that Nixon is kept from some kind of legal reckoning or due process of law, the more impossible it is for people to grant him that most ancient and widely hailed of all juridical rights--the presumption of innocence until proved guilty. One thing that emerges from studying those polls is that most Americans are concluding that Nixon's defensive measures do not make any sense unless he is guilty. The power of such a belief, if it hardens further in the national mind, would be awesome.

It is the same sentiment that underlies what has been happening on Capitol Hill. Some Senators and Congressmen still try to live in a fanciful world, where hard choices can be fudged, where blunt assessments can be avoided. In his call for Nixon's resignation, Senator Buckley used language skillfully to create the image of a President innocent of criminal acts, a man essentially victimized by others. But Buckley's whole performance in the cavernous Senate Caucus Room spoke something quite the opposite, something that members of Congress until now have only dared mutter among themselves. It is the horror of the spectacle of a President of the U.S.--a friend, a Republican, a national figure for three decades--being revealed as a criminal while holding the nation's highest trust. The growing reality of this has made a lot of important people come face to face with themselves and consider their own place in the history now being written. We are in a period when silence is its own statement. But there most assuredly will be more voices raised in the next days.

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