On the Right

New York, Aug 4—Notwithstanding that the vote against Mr. Nixon by the Judiciary Committee was formally bipartisan, the cluster of nays was Republican, and everyone who speaks about the forthcoming event in the Senate speaks about “Republican stalwarts” or “Southern Democratic conservatives” as making up the hard core of “Nixon loyalists.” It is of course too bad that, despite serious efforts, the question of whether Mr. Nixon should be impeached slits up as a partisan affair. Young liberals (at one of the antipodes) are in favor of conviction. Old conservatives (at the other) are opposed.

And of course it is, in a profound sense, a political question rather than a juridical question. By this I mean that scholars equally learned could disagree endlessly on whether Mr. Nixon should have been impeached, though as the factual evidence mounts against him, the burden increases on the nonimpeachment scholars.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

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New York, Aug 4—Notwithstanding that the vote against Mr. Nixon by the Judiciary Committee was formally bipartisan, the cluster of nays was Republican, and everyone who speaks about the forthcoming event in the Senate speaks about “Republican stalwarts” or “Southern Democratic conservatives” as making up the hard core of “Nixon loyalists.” It is of course too bad that, despite serious efforts, the question of whether Mr. Nixon should be impeached slits up as a partisan affair. Young liberals (at one of the antipodes) are in favor of conviction. Old conservatives (at the other) are opposed.

And of course it is, in a profound sense, a political question rather than a juridical question. By this I mean that scholars equally learned could disagree endlessly on whether Mr. Nixon should have been impeached, though as the factual evidence mounts against him, the burden increases on the nonimpeachment scholars.