On the Right

New York, August 7—Senator Robert Byrd is quoted as saying that he sees no reason at all why Richard Nixon shouldn’t go to jail if guilty. It is fortunate that the people, in their treatment of Senator Byrd, are more forgiving than Senator Byrd is prepared to be toward Mr. Nixon. Mr. Byrd’s indiscretion wasn’t a coverup. He merely joined the Ku Klux Klan. Come to think of it, my memory is that Senator Byrd then proceeded to cover up his relations with the Klan.

Richard Nixon’s real crime isn’t, in my judgment, the kind of thing you bump into on the statute books. It is a cliché that no man is above the law. Like many clichés, one must avoid a parsing of it. The fact of the matter is that most Presidents are above many laws, and if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be able to function in the way we expect them to function. The law Nixon violated—the coverup—is not intrinsically important, viewed at a presidential perspective. Mr. Nixon made it important by his denials and by the incredible mismanagement of his case.

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

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

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New York, August 7—Senator Robert Byrd is quoted as saying that he sees no reason at all why Richard Nixon shouldn’t go to jail if guilty. It is fortunate that the people, in their treatment of Senator Byrd, are more forgiving than Senator Byrd is prepared to be toward Mr. Nixon. Mr. Byrd’s indiscretion wasn’t a coverup. He merely joined the Ku Klux Klan. Come to think of it, my memory is that Senator Byrd then proceeded to cover up his relations with the Klan.

Richard Nixon’s real crime isn’t, in my judgment, the kind of thing you bump into on the statute books. It is a cliché that no man is above the law. Like many clichés, one must avoid a parsing of it. The fact of the matter is that most Presidents are above many laws, and if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be able to function in the way we expect them to function. The law Nixon violated—the coverup—is not intrinsically important, viewed at a presidential perspective. Mr. Nixon made it important by his denials and by the incredible mismanagement of his case.