f
THE
summer Daily
Summer Edition of
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Tuesday, July 24, 1973 News Phone: 764-0552
Nixn'sreifustal to
gnVa tapeS G rUSe
)RESIDENT NIXON is attempting to use a legal ruse
to obfuscate the issue of his guilt or innocence in the
Waterate scandal, and in his most arrogant style, has
asked, in effect, the American people to defer his judge-
ment in the matter.
The President yesterday, refused to the Senate Wat-
ergate committee and special Watergate proscutor Archi-
bald Cox access to the so-called "White House tapes"
which may have the answers to the extent of White
House involvement, including the President's, in the
Watergate scandal.
His position, based on his personal and self-serving
interpretation of the doctrine of the separation of powers,
strikes to the very heart of the democratic process. His
statement, places the president above the due process of
the American judicial and legislative systems.
Nixon rests his case on, the constitutional separation
of the branches of government, meant by the writers of
the constitution to prohibit the aggrandizement of. one
branch's power at the expense of another.
NIXON USED the specific argument of executive privi-
lege, which entitles a president to keep matters per-
taining to the duties of the office confidential. But, Sen.
Sam Ervin (D-NC), chairman of the Senate Watergate
committee, stated there is nothing in the constitution that
requires a president to commit a crime or to run for re-
election, and thus executive privilege is irrelevant.
Nixon, further stated, that he had already listened
to the tapes and found them to be "entirely consistent
with what I know to be the truth and what I have stated
to be the truth."
But, in a remarkable affront to the American people,
Nixon stated, "the tapes contain comments that persons
with different perspectives and motivations would in-
evitably interpret in different ways."
He further stated that they (the tapes) "would not
settle the central issues before your committee." If they
had, our President would have weighed "the substantial
public interest of disclosure against the negatives of dis-
closure."
THE ARROGANCE of such a stance is overwhelming.
The President does not trust the Ervin committee,
nor the American people as a whole, to judge the rele-
vance and the weight of this evidence. He has already
done so.
Finally, Nixon states that interspersed in the tapes
are confidences that make the release impossible.
Ervin, in reading the President's letter and announc-
ing the subsequent committee subpoena to obtain the
documents, spoke of the moral issue that lies behind the
legal cover.
THE PRESIDENT of the United States has until recent-
ly been not only the political but also moral leader
of our country. Only in the last two decades has the
lying, arrogance, and now illegal activity of the execu-
tive branch broueht the highest elective office of the
country to such ill-reoute.
In effect, behind all the legal terminology of separa-
tion of powers and executive orivilege, the President is
asking the Americans to "trust him." And, in a mocking
gesture of the total lack of respect for this President, the
.American peonle will now. laughingly ask "Why?"
Why should we trust a President who has lied con-
tinuously about illegal wars and bombing?
Why should we trust a President that thrives on the
fears of his people and exploits them for his elective
gains?
- Why should we trust a President that has arrogantly
told our representatives in the legislative branch. that
they do not matter and he, in his imperial wisdom, can
rule without them?
WE DO NOT TRUST the President of the United States.
We, as all the polls have shown, believe that he was
involved. We want the evidence to finally ascertain whe-
ther he is culpable in the Watergate scandal. And if he is,
we want him out.
Summer Staff
ROBERT BARKIN aod CHARLES STEIN
Co-editors
GORDON ATCHESON. ......... . . . ..Night Editor
DANIEL BIDDLE ....... . .. . ......... ......, ...Night Editor
DEBORAH GOOD........ . Assistant Night Editor.
JACK KROST.... ............ Assistant Night Editor
JOSEPHINE MARCOTTI ......................Assistant Night Editor
DAVID STOLL ......................... ........ Assistant Night Editor
DEBEA THAL ... ........... . Night Editor
REBECCA WANNER .........,.,.. .. ....................... Night Editor
iif
Nixon should give committee tapes
or be thrown out of Whte House
By PETE HAMILL
IF THE NIXON people get away
with all this, we had better
close down the civics courses until
1976. Go over to Boy's High and
tell them to put the Constitution
in a drawer for the duration. For-
get about telling your kids to obey
the laws or tell the truth. Don't
ask a cop to risk his life chasing
a criminal. Tell the judges they
have no right to send a man to At-
tica or Greenhaven for boosting a
TV set, when there men are free
after heisting the Constitution. As
long as Richard Nixon holds the
went, were the acts of a young
man, hungry for power, and once
power was obtained, he would be
different.
It did not work that way. In the
White House he remained Richard
Nixon. And so there was no sur-
prise when Alexander Butterfield
told the Ervin Committee that
Richard Nixon had bugged his own
offices and placed wiretaps on his
own telephones.
of Richard Nixon's soiled W h i t e
House: hidden voice-actuated mi-
crophones, black boxes, basement
tape recorders, their product stash-
ed away in the overflowing cabi-
nets of the Executive Office Build-
ing. Small jokes, intimacies, indis-
cretions, requests for favors, sug-
gestions of deals: they were all
there, ready for later perusal by
such moral palladins as Haldeman,
Ehrlichman, and Nixon himself.
POOR BUTTERFIF
many of the dupesv
him before the comn
And if they will not give these tapes
American people, then Richard Nixon
be thrown out of office.
Presidency, the law is dead.
Now we see more about the way
these people lived. They had turned
the White House into a moldy By-
zantine palace, rife with pardnoia,
conspiracy, crime, and velvet bru-
tality. The people elected a man
named Richard Nixon, but they
are now discovering that their true
rulers were people named Halde-
man, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Dean,
Colson. The Americans never elect-
ed these people; their names were
not submitted to referendum. They
are, in fact, Richard Nixon.
And to say that Nixon was not
responsible for their acts is to
say that a holdup man is not re-
sponsible for the hand that holds
the gun. If there had been no Rich-
ard Nixon in power there would
have been no Haldeman, no Ehr-
lichman, no Gordon Liddy, no How-
ard Hunt, no Donald Segretti, no
wiretapping, and no burglary at the
Watergate. They belonged to Rich-
ard Nixon.
OF COURSE, we all knew about
Richard Nixon before he was elect-
ed. It was all there on the record,
his progress in the humanities
marked by the names of his vic-
tims: Helen Gahagan Douglas, Jer-
ry Voorheis, Alger Hiss, and all'
the others whose names are not
so well known.
And yet there were people who
somehow believed in the mystical
redemptive powers of the Presi-
dency. People like Nelson Rocke-
feller and Jacob Javits who des-
pised Nixon, tried to tell us that
as President he would be differ-
ent; his moral felonies, the sermon
ed on Nixon's benign
The recordings were m
torical purposes," h
eyes blinking innocen
lights. But this is lik.
Joey Gallo was kille
ture towards populati
If Nixon was seriou
torical purposes," he
placed a beeper on hi
told every visitor to
fice or the Executive
ing that he was beii
did neither. The spi
explain the web to the
Even Nixon's suppo
gress must be appale
est sickening disclosu
Republican Senator A
the President, but die
have Haldeman arou
indeed, that the su
conversation was Ha
hypothetical Republi
would sit down with
what he had to say, a
that night, Haldeman
access to these tape
scene out of the Reic
There they are, the
ELD, like so BUT WE ARE now at the point
who preceded where many things have come to
nittee, insist- us- with shining clarity. First of
all, the White House is ours; it
belong to the people of the United
to the States, and Nixon and his crummy
mob occupy it at our pleasure.
Should Those tapes belong to us, and we
should have them. They are not
to solve so narrow a matter as
John Dean's version of the truth.
Dean is not on trial here.
motivations. Instead, inadvertently,rwe can
sade for "his- now have the whole rotten record
se said, his spread out before us. We can hear
tly in the TV what Nixon said to Haldeman and
e saying that others at every White H o u s e
d as a ges- breakfast meeting from June 17 un-
on control. til March. We can hear every tele-
is about "his- phone call.
would have Nixon's people have been trying
s phones, and to tell us that through all these
the Oval Of- long months Nixon never even men-
Office Build- tioned the Watergate. The tapes
ng' taped. He should show the truth. And since
der does not they will not give these tapes to
e fly. the American people, who paid
frters in Con- for them and owned them, then
A rters n C- Richard Nixon should be thrown
d by this 1st- out of office.
reSuppose a
wanted to ee Pete Hamill is a writer for
dd. Soppose, The New York Post. Copyright
bject of the 1973, New York Post Corp.
ldaman. That
can Senator -The Editorial Page of The
Nixon, say Michigan Daily is open to any'
nd leave. But one who w i s h e s to submit
would have articles. Generally speaking, all
is. That is a articles should be less than 1,000
hstag. words.
true symbals
)
Letters to The Daily
Women's athletics
To The Daily:
PRESIDENT FLEMING has ap-
pointed a Committee to Study In-
tercollegiate Athletics for Women.
This committee is interested in
hearing from students,'faculty, and
any others who have concerns in
the area of women's intercollegiate
athletics. Written comments a r e
welcome at any time and may be
sent to the Committee at 1123
School of Education. If you feel
that you would prefer to talk to
the committee, please call 763-
1228 and we will try to arrange a
time for you to meet with us.
. -Eunice L. Burns,
Chaisperson, Committee
to Study Intercollegiate
Athletics for Women