She t cd tan Daily Eighty-three years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104 News Phone: 764-0552 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1973 More tape ehicanery PRESIDENT NIXON'S sudden decision to turn over nine Watergate tapes to Federal Judge John Sirica came as some- thing of a surprise to' many observers. The move seemed out of character for a President .who had fought so long for his precious "executive privilege." The assertion gesterday that the two key tapes of the nine do not exist seemed more in line with the Nixon we have come to know over the years. According to White House lawyer Fred Buzhardt, the tapes in questions never were made, due in one case to the mal- functioning of the Presidential system and in the other because the President made a phone call from an extension not connected to the system. An administration with untarnished credibility would have difficulty in mak- ing this implausible story sound credi- ble. President Nixon's recent record, how- ever, makes Buzhardt's account almost laughable. PERHAPS IF THE non-existence of these particular tapes had been an- nounced five months ago before the bat- tle over their release began it might have been more readily accepted. But, coming as it does after the President had done everything in his power to maintain the secrecy of the tapes, yesterday's disclos- ure only serves as new evidence of Nixon's desire to obstruct justice in the Watergate case. According to Sen. Sam Ervin (D-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Watergate Com- mittee, the White House had assured him Editorial Staff CHRISTOPHER PARKS and EUGENE ROBINSON Co-Editors in Chief- DIANE LEVICK .................... ...Arts Editor MARTIN PORTER ............. ...Sunday Editor MARILYN RILEY ...Associate Managing Editor ZACHARY SCHILLER.... ....ditorial .Drector ERIC SCHOCH ......Editorial Director TONY SCHWARTZ..................Sunday Editor CHARLES STEIN .............. .....City Editor TED STEIN ......... ....... Executive Editor RoLFE TESSEM ......... ......... Managing Editor STAFF WRrEs: .rakasb awani, Gordon Atcheson, Dan Bidde, Penny Blank, Dan Blugerman, Howard Brick, Dave Burhenn, Bonnie Carnes, Charles Cole- m~an, Mike Duweck, Teti Evanoff, Deborah Good, william Heenan, Cindy Bill, Jack Krost, Jean Love- Josephine Marcotty, Cheryl Pilate, Judy Ruskin, Ann Rauma, Bob Seidenstein Stephen Selbst, Jeff Sorensen, Sue tjtephepson, David Stoll, Rebecca Warner DAILY WEATHER BUREAU: William Marino and, Dennis Dismacnek (forecasters) Photography Staff DAVID MARGOLICK Chief Photographer as late as Oct. 19, that all the tapes ex- isted.' Assistant Atty. Gen. Henry Petersen's testimony before the Watergate Commit- tee also contradicts the administration's story on the tapes. On Aug. 7 of this year, Petersen told the committee that the President had offered to let him listen to one of the tapes in question. THE IMPRESSION that the President decided to release the tapes in order to head off impeachment efforts in the Congress, while at the same time keeping incriminating evidence out of Judge Siri- ca's hands is unavoidable. It is a familiar Nixon technique for dealing with pressure from the public or Capitol Hill: The President makes what appears to be a significant concession, then later guts the concession of its es- sence. The appointment of Special Prose- cutor Archibald Cox and the subsequent limitations placed on his supposedly "in- dependent" investigation is one exam- ple 'of this "give and take back" tech- nique. This latest development over the Wat- ergate tapes should make it clear to the Congress that Richard Nixon does not intend to allow the interests of justice to stand in theway of his Presidency. Fortunately, Nixon's decision to release the tapes did not bring an end to im- peachment efforts in the Congress. Now, there is more reason than ever for these efforts to be carried to the necessary con- clusion: the impeachment of the Presi- dent. And now Bebe WHILE ON THE subject of'credibility, it is interesting to note the remarks of President Nixon's close personal friend Bebe Rebozo in an interview with the Mi- ami Herald Wednesday. Talking about the $100,000 contribution which he received from Howard Hughes in 1970 for the 1972 Nixon campaign, Re- bozo said that he did not tell Nixon about the contribution until after the election. Rebozo also said that he told Rose Mary Woods, Nixon's longtime personal secre- tary, about the donation shortly after he received it, but that she did not inform the President either. Thus we are to believe that Nixon's best friend and his personal secretary did not mention such a large contribution, even casually, for two years. Last summer, former Atty. Gen. and Nixon campaign manager John Mitchell asked an incredulous country to believe that after the Watergate break-in, and even after reports of possible White House involvement, Mitchell and the President never once talked about the Watergate "matter" with each other. Thus Americans are asked to accept as credible the notion that the President re- frains from discussing such important matters with his aides and friends, and that they do likewise. Such a notion - like the Nixon Presidency itself - it pret- ty incredible. Calling for LSA reforms Editor's note: The following is the second of two articles on LSA govern- ance reform. By CHUCK BARQUIST THE FAILURE of the LSA faculty to act to change grading last year was a tragic abdication of responsibility and, e v e n worse, an ostrich-like effort to hide from the established fact that grading has never fulfilled its supposed educational purposes. But the issue is even more serious for what it reveals about the paralyzing contradic- tions built into the present political struc- ture of the College, Practically as well as morally, the fun- damental problem with LSA today involv- es the organization and composition of the so-called Governing Faculty. It meets only once a month for about 90 minutes and, although perhaps 1100 faculty are eligible to attend, it rarely exceeds its 100-man quorum by very much. Those who attend are a small self- appointed elite - mostly department chair- men and others who feel officially obligat- ed to attend but are not primarily inter- ested in or committed to College legislat- ing per se. Those who attend are mostly aging, white, and male (seemingly much more so thanthe faculty at large), and formally accountable to no one under this "community government" system. Private- ly, even many conservative faculty admit that, except when it bestirs itself to re- ject reforms, the Governing Faculty is an anachronistic farce which reigns but does not rule. THE OTHER FUNDAMENTAL inconss- tency in LSA governance is the inclusion of students on many committees but rot in the legislative process. Students have a 'democratic right to participate in any de- cisions affecting them, the more so since they outnumber their faculty tenfold. Each faculty rejection of reasonable reforms in- creases student awareness of their com- mon rights and interests, and no student who attends a faculty meeting ever be- lieves again that the faculty have a man- date to rule the College based on exper- tise, intelligence or moral superiority. You may experience this for yourself on Mon- day, November 5 at 4:00 in Angell Hall Auditorium A. The Governance Proposal, introduced by English Professor Marvin Felheim and my-. self and which is on the Faculty's Novem- ber agenda, has been conceived to meet these two fundamental problems. It calls for a representative assembly of 50 faculty members and 50 students which would as- sume authority for. the conduct of the affairs at the College. The new Governing Assembly should, by its representative nature, more accurately reflect the whole of faculty opinion. Though its streamlined size and procedures, t h e Assembly will be more efficient and respon- sive to the pressing needs of the College. MORE IMPORTANT, however, t h a n these structural modifications, is the in- clusion of LSA undergraduates into t h e formal decision-making procedure. Their inclusion is a first step in the process of making the College responsive to the real educational needs of its students and the larger society. Realization of this fact will signal an im- portant shift in teacher-student relation- ships, making education the cooperative venture it should be. We must begin to dismiss the notion that "education" is what some people (faculty) do to others (stu- dents). THERE ARE indications that the Faculty may again abdicate its responsibilities in its consideration of the Governance Propos- al by hastily disposing of it without ser- ious debate on the issues involved. Des- pite their protestations about the import- ance of student "input," it is likely they will attempt to ignore the issues of Col- lege governance reform, in spite of stu- dent co-sponsoring of the proposal and the fact that governance reform has been the central policy goal of LSA Student Government for over a year. Student concern on this issue has been adequately demonstrated. Students voted overwhelmingly for student-faculty parity on all College Committees and decision- making bodies in an LSA-SG election last year. Students are urged to once again voice that concern by attending the Faculty meet- ing on 'Nov. 5, 4:00 Angell Hall, Auditorium A. It is now up to the Faculty to seriously consider the problems of governance. To do' otherwise is to court revolution. Chuck Barquist is a junior and Vice President of LSA Student Government. , J t i i ~IT:'z:h t!~i COOK, WE CANT ALLOW AN INDEPENDENT' PROSECUY0R POKING ARCUNL TN~e WHIFF U01i§E EVE.RY 11Me A PEIEN15 SACCUSEP OF A SERIOUS CRIME! About the VY14AT KIND2 OF GOVERNMENT WOULD WE N IAVE UNDER THOS0E CONDITION5 ? OR FEDERAL COURTS INSPECTING PRES~IDENTIAL RE.CORDS THAT MAY BE INCRMNATING! A i)AAn/ DrAt0 I IAt....7 1 A YtMU(-KA( Y, MAYBE ? 1 f I' r -a 'I'IIE 'MILWAUKEE JOURNAL PuiIshersHall Syndicate, 1979 By MARCIA ZOSLAW . the affair, its figures encapsulated, and s WE ASCENDED the still-green hill onto interesting to contemplate in party chat the columned porch of a stately brick ter. The gray news flashed, changed, Kis' mansion - manor house to all that extend- singer intoning about the crisis in the Mid ed in the vague dark; party at Xanadu, so dle East. the word went. High in the house on the hill, assurne Parked cars cluttered the streets as if to be in America, we deplored the tragedy the whole world had heard he rumor acknowledged the imminence of cataciys' of the Great Party and one and all agreed and the ,judgment day: Nixon would b~ to come celebrate. Their shiny cars, color.- tried, impeached, the world in a b'x- ful abandoned husks, emptied their share of cramped passengers who made haste to SERPENTINE CORRIDORS, room door approach the secluded spot. shut, wound around the upper floor, attest The orc pilars gleae~istauchl ing that the house was built to be livec . Th poch illas geam~d saunhly in, built originally to cocoon cashmere - white in the filmy night. The air smelt sf ooiywmna hymtrdt pleasantly of marijuan-a cigarette smoke; marriarge age, shelteredas they grace et on the fragrant porch the people stretched tyadwahhe.Blwthgrndfo themselves, relaxed, conversant with lu-lay the basement, a cavernous place inous starbright eyes. They invited us in where a low drone of unlikely conversatior with wid sweepingegestures as if rto say wafted from a couch in one room, where ther wa mor whre tey ame rom further on in bluish light a ping pong matcl On the mansion's ground floor, fathoming took place as two against two battled th~ the maze from room to room, people pick- globe of their concentration. Jokes wer4 ed up freshly washed cups from the kitch- made about the disastrous possibilities o en to search for the pleasantry of wine or tomorrow: 'Nixon bans popcorn, ping pong beer, until everything was empty ex~cept There were visions to be had: Kissing for a few seasons of girapefruits dregs left er kissing the dancers in the red light at the bottom of the bowl. In the vast Nixon hiding out in a toilet stall, hogging dining room lay some bland brown rice all the popcorn to himself. pudding and a mysterious cake that could P d it re dar fogn constituted our awetmospee.oe ande dsengaging with strangers and fried darkfog onsttute ouratmopher. until early daylight filtered through, caugh With the best of taste Xanadu mansion the gleam of the TV set and exposed us provided signs to describe the activity ta'k- a dwindling crowd. Glory be to the housi ing place mn each room. Where the beer on the hill, glory to its largesse, shrin barrel was, the sign and arrow painited of that all-imotant festivity o'rgo to BAR; the room adjoining was labeled time: imperatve to thank the host but Gats DANCE; there a life band encouraged ex- ysee ohv iapae utte hilarant movement despite the fact that by se dtohvdiaprdjuthn one and all enjoyed a space quite small. A red glow illuminated .the far corner THEN IT SEEMED that one by one th of the dance floor, world deserted Xanadu, picking home thei separate ways, pinned huddled back mt THE NEXT ROOM could have b e e n shells of cars, poined, pinched and con labelled LOUNGE or TELEVISION. En- strained to the general traffic. The dope be tranced party-ers watched a dire film, a came effective now, the faces of the peopl spectacle of the progressive decline of lovely in the evening shrunk to grim smil their government, one nation under God. ing skullheads. Their thougths were anx To their taut stillness, excited dotted im- ious, they couldn't wait to read the morn ages spoke - grieving, critical, inhibited, ing paper. As they left, a few of,the danc the downed voice of the people's former ers, in a last gesture of liberation, too prosecutor, fired for his vigor of prosecu- off their jewels and threw them high tion, the resigned, nervous, exhausted, the air where they caught in the hill ready-to-cry faces of the two recent Jus- sky and shone like stars. tice Department heads Richardson a n d Ruckleshous. Marcia Zoslaw is a staff writer for Th The television lent a low undertone to Daily. 0 t- i- d , e Is t- d :o r n ,e h e ,e t, Ig It s, ;e to ,d s- n. ie it to n- e- le il- X- n- c- )k in Iy e great alert By PETE HAMILL OCT. 26 - I was in Nathan's at 43d St. and Broadway; eating a hotdog and watching the pimps move around on the sidewalk, when the paper came up with the news of the alert. Guy after guy arriv- ed at the newsstand; looked at the head- line, laughed, and then turned to the rac- ing news. Nobody believes Richard 'Nixon, even when he's waving the atom bomb around. I mean, these guys really laughed. The paper said that American troops were on a "general alert," and the Strategic Air Com- mand was flying around, doing their Jim- my Stewart act, and the Marines in the Mediterranean were .in full combat gear, and leaves were cancelled, and they had closed off McGuire Air Force Base. It sounded like the missile crisis, or the end of the world, but New Yorkers were laugh- ing. You saw images of stern Russian troops arriving in the desert, and the American Marines storming ashore, and shots fired, and missiles, and then . . . laughter. "This guy is really unbelievable," said a chuckling, heavy-set man named Alphonso Thomas. "I mean, he'd do anything to make us forget them tapes." GOD KNOWSewhat Americans think out there in the Beloved Heartland, but here in New Yor, it was some wierd day. No- body I talked to believed what Nixon was doing. The details kept leaking out: Nixon meeting the National Security Council at 3 in the morning to respond to what turned out to be a rumor that the Russians were coming to the Middle East. The planes sent into the skies. Kissinger getting on TV with his usual exercise in ambiguity; explaining that Nixon was sending the planes into the air and placing troops on alert as "a pre-" caution" and then trying to assure us that Nixon wasn't really serious. It was like having an inside look at Creedmoor. The trouble is that Nixon's little Presiden- tial act is over now, and nobody will ever believe him again. Walking around Broad- way, before the peacekeeping details were worked out at the UN, you saw life go on. Tixon couldtell you there was a, Mongol horde of Forsyth St., and you wouldn't both- er taking a look. The New Yorkers I talked-to didn't really care. They've given up on this character. Some of them were just worried that he doesn't pull a Samson routine, and pull the whole temple down with him. It could hap- pen. After all, this is a, man whose two closest advisers atthe moment are an Ar- my general and a former Disneyland guide. If you had something serious to do would you ask Ron Ziegler what he thought? And if von were in a domestic jam in a denoc- racy wold you have General Haig handle it' for vo? WE'VE GONE so far these days that when the President .f the United States takes actions that could be the prelude to clfr war, yon look for some angle that in-~olves domestic criminality. It was no accident, I would presume, that Nixon's 3 a.m. decision to place the American armed forces on general alert cane after the early editions of The Wash- ington Post carried a story about Bebe Re- hozo and $91,000 worth of stolen securities he s alleged to have cashed, knowing they were stolen. Nixon has done worse things in his life than faking a crisis. If the reaction in New York was any ex- ample, there is nothing more that Nixon can do to save his hide. He has finally bank- rupted whatever reservoir of respect and honor comes from the simple fact of being President. He is perceived now for what he is: a man trapped in a bunker, lashing out, making plans and then cancelling them, seeking advice from mediocrities, flailing around for something large enough to scare Americans with, so that his own acts will pale by comparison. After all, what are some altered tapes compared with nuclear holocaust? What is a burglary at the Wat- ergate compared with 100-mllion dead? The planes are back in the hangars, for tfe moment, and Nixon will no doubt go on TV and tell us how firm and steady and tough he was under pressure. But it's a phony. Anybody could look good solving a nhony crisis. Especially if you have the willing cooneration of your opponents. The audience doesn't always know what they're seeing, but Nixon is now so suspect that the audience is looking to yell at him even before he goes in the tank. It's all over. Tt's a bad act. And it's time to get it off the boards forever. Pete Hamil is a columnist for the New York. Post. Copyright 1973-The New York Post Corporation. , r A J 4; 'I 4 If KEN FINK...................Staffl THOMAS GOTLIEB ............Staff1 STOVE KAGAN .............. Staff ] K~AREN KASMAUSKI-----------.Staff TERRY McCARTHY............Staff JOHN UPTON . .....Staff Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer TODAY'S STAFF: News: Dan Blugerman, Chris Parks, Judy Rijkin, Jim Schuster, Ted Stein Editorial Page: Paul Gallagher, Ted Hart- zell, Marnie Heyn, Eric Schoch Arts Page: Diane Levick Photo Technician: Ken Fink metimes amntdnoinol ..ni to,.qsn- gazine with a title somehing like the "China Peace News" (I can- not remember the exat title, but it was close, and contaiied that wording), charged that Mr. Warn-. er was a war criminal, shoujiu have been killed on the spot (both of which were stated directly), and was a liar (implied thra'ighout). As your article says, he avoided emo- tionalism in response. tI