The President Yields to Congress

In the battle for power among the branches of Government, Watergate has clearly sapped Richard Nixon's strength as President and greatly raised the might of Congress and the courts. For months Nixon argued bitterly that the Senate Watergate committee had no right to any of his private tape recordings and documents. Last week he was forced to give ground.

At the committee's urging, Congress had passed a bill giving the courts authority to enforce the committee's subpoenas. To head off more controversy, Nixon grudgingly let the bill become law. Explained a White House aide: "Politically, he had to do it. He truly thought that it was a bad bill, but he knew a veto would be misunderstood." Within a day, the committee subpoenaed tapes of 486 White House meetings and several hundred supporting documents concerning the Watergate breakin, contributions to Nixon's re-election drive, and campaign dirty tricks.

White House Counsel J. Fred Buzhardt accepted the committee's subpoena but gave no indication whether it would be honored. An aide said that Nixon considered the subpoena "incredible." If the White House does not obey it, however, Committee Chairman Sam Ervin has vowed to ask the courts to force the Administration to comply.

Leaked Tape. That could set off another court battle over presidential tapes and documents. The first drew to a close last week. After listening to the tapes, Federal Judge John J. Sirica ruled that most of two and part of a third had nothing to do with the break-in and need not be given to Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski. His office had subpoenaed them as evidence for the grand jury that will decide whether to indict more people in the Watergate case.

Sirica ruled that of the three tapes, Jaworski should receive only 1) part of a tape including the famous 18 1/4-minute hum that recorded a meeting between Nixon and former Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman on June 20, 1972; 2) five minutes of references to Watergate on a tape of Nixon's discussion on June 30, 1972, with former Attorney General John Mitchell about his resignation as chairman of the President's re-election committee; and 3) most of a tape of Nixon's conference with former Counsel John W. Dean on Sept. 15, 1972, the day that the original seven Watergate defendants were indicted. Dean has testified that during the meeting, Nixon congratulated him on the "good job" he had done in preventing the indictments from going higher up.

One of Nixon's arguments against surrendering the tapes was that they might be leaked, making private conversation public. Just such a leak occurred last week. A tape of a Nixon meeting with milk producers on March 23,1971, had been subpoenaed from the White House by Attorney William Dobrovir as evidence in a civil suit challenging the Administration's increase in milk-price supports. At a cocktail party in Washington attended by six other people, Dobrovir played five minutes of the tape "just for fun."

Outraged Nixon aides suggested that Dobrovir had violated legal ethics, and two days later he was summoned to court. There he contritely conceded: "I made a very foolish mistake." Judge William B. Jones ordered all tapes and documents in the milk case to be sealed until presented in court.

As his Watergate troubles grind on, President Nixon draws more and more within himself. In an interview with Godfrey Sperling of the Christian Science Monitor, Republican Senator Barry Goldwater said of Nixon: "I've never known a man to be such a loner in any field. I know that [Chief Domestic Adviser] Mel Laird quit mainly because the President won't listen to him. Bryce Harlow is reportedly quitting for the same reason." Others rumored to be quitting soon include Assistant Peter Flanigan, Economic Adviser Herbert Stein and Speechwriter Ray Price.

Target Date. Melvin Laird did a final service for the President before he resigned--to become a vice president, chief lobbyist and occasional writer for Reader's Digest. Laird urged the House to vote by March 15 whether or not to impeach the President. He explained: "I don't think there should be a decision to postpone that vote just to have it closer to the election." House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino, however, has set a target date of April for winding up the committee's inquiry into impeachment.

As special counsel to head the investigation, Rodino appointed Republican John M. Doar, 52. A native of Wisconsin, he graduated in 1949 from the law school of the University of California at Berkeley. In 1960 President Eisenhower appointed him to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Doar headed the division under President Johnson, then resigned in 1968 to direct an antipoverty organization founded by Robert Kennedy in New York City's Bedford-Stuyvesant ghetto, a job that he resigned two weeks ago. He also served in 1968 and 1969 as president of the New York City board of education. Friends characterize him as extremely competent and a "demon for work."

No matter how fast Rodino, Doar and the committee act, Nixon will still confront his basic problem. Barry Goldwater was also asked in the interview whether Watergate might impair the President's power to govern for the next three years. The Senator, who is increasingly the public conscience of conservative Republicans, replied: "I don't think it's Watergate, frankly, as much as it's just a question in people's mind of just how honest is this man? I hate to think of the old adage, 'Would you buy a used car from Dick Nixon?', but that's what people are asking round the country."

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The President also retreated in another fight. In 1972 and early 1973, he impounded congressionally approved funds--conservatively estimated to total $16 billion--as a means of slowing inflation. Critics argued that impoundment was unconstitutional; indeed, the Administration has lost most of the 30 or so suits brought by groups to free the funds. Partly because of those defeats, Nixon released about $1 billion last week for federal health and education programs. That left impounded some $7.5 billion in highway funds and $6 billion for construction of sewage plants. Deputy Press Secretary Gerald Warren would only say that releasing more money "will be considered."

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