How Main Street Views Watergate

Watergate has deeply divided Americans, but the splits are not along simple partisan lines. Some Republicans, feeling betrayed, are more bitter than many Democrats. Nor are the divisions along lines of white v. black, or urban v. rural, or young v. old. Yet there are some discernible patterns. For well-educated and politically aware Americans, Watergate usually is a searing, personally felt issue. Others are bored by the whole mess, especially those who cynically regard all politics as dirty. To sample the various American moods and reactions, TIME correspondents interviewed people in five diverse communities last week:

LEXINGTON, VA.: On his farm near Lexington (pop. 8,440), Carl Sensabaugh, 68, and his wife Katrina are more concerned with candling the eggs than with following the scandal. "Shoot, I watched that Senate committee on TV for an hour, and I couldn't figure out hide nor hair what they were up to," says he. "I reckon they're trying to figure out how many crooks we got up there in Washington." Adds Mrs. Sensabaugh: "I know it must be important because they keep telling us it is. But my goodness! You'd think they'd have something better to do." Should Nixon be impeached if he is shown to have had prior knowledge of the bugging and breakin? Replies Sensabaugh: "If impeached means kick him out, I say no."

Beef Farmer Randolph Huffman, 50, reflects the opinion of some Americans who voted for Nixon in 1968 and 1972 but never fully trusted him. "I don't really like Nixon, but both times I figured he was the lesser of two evils," says Huffman. "This type of Watergate thing goes on all the time. These boys were just unfortunate to get caught. But Watergate has caused us to lose whatever confidence we had left in our Government, in the System."

Major General Richard L. Irby (ret.), 55, superintendent of Virginia Military Institute, says: "Watergate is not Topic A here--local problems are --but it worries everyone, and there's more concern every day. I don't think the President has done wrong. I believe what he said on TV, and I can't fault him any more than I'd fault a bank president whose cashier steals money. Of course, the responsibility for what his aides did falls on the President's shoulders, and he has taken it. But I'm talking about responsibility--not guilt."

Mrs. Julie Martin, 46, a V.M.I, administrative assistant who voted for Nixon, says: "People don't know what to believe. They feel lost. I have a strong feeling that I've been betrayed somehow, because this is my Government and I expected it to be noble and above all, honest. Sure, rising prices bother me, but in Watergate we're talking about something far more important than pocketbook issues: the integrity of the Government. This is something that I hold very dear. I'm a flag waver."

Yet Norman Andersen, a motel owner, reports that when his overnight guests pick up the morning paper they exclaim: "Oh, no, not Watergate again!"

To Andersen, the affair has dragged on too long.

BEAVER FALLS, PA.: This steel fabricating town of 14,375 people northwest of Pittsburgh had a primary election last Tuesday, and news of Watergate and Skylab was relegated to page 13 of the local paper. As Edward A. Sahli, 69, a General Motors dealer put it: "The people are interested in campers and football; they're not worried about this." Sahli himself is more concerned about familial propriety than political ethics. He argues that "F.D.R. had a couple of babes on the side. Morally, Watergate is no worse."

Typical comments from Beaver Falls people:

"They are blowing it up and keeping it alive" ("they" meaning some vague, unidentified enemies of the President).

"The stories are so confusing that I can't follow them, and anyway, nothing has been proved."

"I'm scared to read the papers. It makes me nervous. I just don't want to know about it."

The Rev. H.B. French, 49, of the Second Baptist Church, spoke for his black parishioners: "They've heard too much about it. People in this country are impatient. If you don't nail a man immediately, forget it."

More deeply concerned was Eugene F. Jannuzi, 57, chairman of Moltrup Steel Products Co. Says he: "Watergate is like a scandal in a family of good repute. You cringe and wonder what more can come out. But it's not going to go away." Jannuzi is also worried about Watergate's effects on business. It has already depressed the stock market and the dollar, he noted, adding: "Lack of confidence has a way of permeating everything we do. It makes me worry whether the present economic boom will continue." Impeachment? "This is so fearful a prospect that people don't say what's on their minds."

SHAKER HEIGHTS, OHIO: In this affluent suburb of Cleveland, City Librarian Margaret Campbell, 60, is worried. How will she ever get back $157 worth of unreturned books when dishonesty reaches as high as the White House? "I'm just appalled by Watergate," she says. "What kind of world are we making for the young? How can we hope to inspire them if our officials are men they can't admire?" Once sympathetic to Nixon, Miss Campbell now salutes Barry Goldwater ("Though I never thought Fd be lined up with him!") for his call upon Nixon to exercise more vigorous leadership. Miss Campbell has another cause for concern. She is planning a trip to Portugal and does not want to have a feeling of shame about her Government when she is with foreigners.

In another Shaker Heights library, there is a flurry of interest in Watergate, with readers Xeroxing newspapers and newsmagazines. Books in demand include The Presidential Character, The Strange Case of Richard Milhous Nixon and The Politics of Lying.

Says Mrs. Patricia Plotkin, 41, past president of the local League of Women Voters: "Watergate is all you hear talked about. The number of disillusioned Republicans is incredible." Yet in an auto-service shop in the poorer section across town, the workers are fed up with Watergate. "What the hell's the big deal?" booms Mechanic Carl Reed, 51. "Both parties have been doing it for years." Ken Masshart, 34, blasts: "I'm so sick of hearing about it that I couldn't care less. I just jump right over it in the paper and read something else." On the first day of the Senate hearings, Cleveland TV stations received 2,500 phone calls from irate viewers in Shaker Heights and other nearby communities; they wanted their soap operas back.

MILWAUKEE: The South Side of this large city (pop. 717,000) is the middle of Middle America, with a tavern on every corner. The families are mostly blue-collar, third-and fourth-generation descendants of Poles, Italians, Germans and Serbians; they gave George McGovern a slight majority. South Siders talk about many things: family problems, rising truancy in schools, soaring property taxes, baseball and--a poor fifth--Watergate.

"The attitude in my parish," says Father James Czachowski, 46, of St. Ignatius Church, "is that Watergate is so far removed, we can't do anything about it. Pope Pius XII said, The greatest sin is that we do not recognize sin.' Watergate is so big that we don't recognize it."

Will Father Czachowski give a sermon some Sunday about the Watergate scandal? "No. We have to save ourselves, not these Watergate people."

"Look," says Ed Daniels, 56, an American Motors stockman, hunched over his beer in Lud and Jerry's: "This stuff is rotten, but impeachment would be worse. Let Nixon finish out his term, then throw him in jail."

"What bothers me is that the image of the country is hurt," says Bud Bongard, 46, a machinist. "We don't talk about Watergate much at the shop or at home. I used to read about it every day, but now the press is overdoing it, and I'm back to the sports pages."

Democrat Dan Cupertino, county board supervisor, expresses frustration.

"What can one man do? I can't even do anything about the scandals here --and there are plenty. Before Watergate, politicians used to be the second rung from the bottom of the ladder, just above used-car salesmen. Now we're on the bottom."

Joe Bananas, a city employee, thinks he knows the root of the trouble: "It's Ellsberg and all those Commies. Nixon did the right thing. He's protecting the country from subversives." R. Thorne Ellis, salesman for Sheboygan Paints, offers another defense: "At least the Republicans didn't kill anybody--like Chappaquiddick."

Says Pat Platto, owner of a linoleum company: "In this political system, a President has to be amoral."

PORTLAND, ORE.: Because this city (pop. 360,000) has had no taint of local political scandal in 15 years, Watergate is all the harder for Portlanders to comprehend. By and large, they trust their officeholders. Even the people who are ready to believe the worst about Watergate commonly add a cautionary note: "But I don't believe this means that all politicians are crooked." Probably the hardest hit emotionally are the Republicans. Never truly comfortable with Nixon, preferring the Nelson Rockefeller brand of Republicanism, they nonetheless supported the President. Now they feel that their trust has been violated.

One such is Mrs. Connie McCready, 51, a commissioner of public utilities.

She says: "Nixon just wasn't my kind of guy. When I heard his Checkers speech I wanted to throw up. But I felt guilty, that perhaps my dislike of him was superficial. Then I thought he had really grown in the office, and I supported a lot of what he was doing. Now I'm stunned. Even among my staunch Nixon-loyalist friends you don't hear any support for the President: they feel even more betrayed than me. I no longer care whether Nixon knew of this or that particular action. If he didn't know, he should have. He's politically dead if he did do it, and he's dead if he didn't."

Clyde Brummell, 46, a carpenter and a Republican precinct committeeman, says that he saw something like Watergate coming because of Nixon's self-imposed isolation from the party structure and his reliance on the Committee for the Re-Election of the President: "Why, the local CREEP man told me during the last election, 'We don't need the lunch-pail vote.' Can you believe it? I can't convince myself that Nixon had any part in planning this thing, but I'm astounded at his pygmy-minded approach in disregarding the party structure and bringing in these people."

Tom Cook, 52, a printer and a McGovern Democrat, is far from jubilant about Watergate. "It's a sad thing," he says. "Anybody in the White House should be above that. They were crying law-and-order when they went in, and now we see them pulling everything in the book. It's hard to believe that Nixon didn't know something about all this. If he was involved, he should resign. That would be better for the country than if he were impeached."

Frank Driver, 24, a Viet Nam veteran, is unusual among Portlanders, even McGovernites, in expressing glee over the Watergate disclosures, and he uses war-born language to describe it. "My friends and family are really pleased," he says. "We can't wait for the body count to get higher." Despite this, Driver does not want to see Nixon impeached, or even implicated further. "I'd prefer to see Nixon kept in office, but with his powers reduced by a more effective Congress," he explains. "We'd have 3 1/2 years of lame-duck drift, that's all."

Portlanders do not profess to know what will happen, but a dominant feeling among them is one of faith in the American governmental system and its ability to withstand any shock.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.