■ Both resign and impeach pressures easing. Democratic National Chairman Robert Strauss says Democratic leaders in Congress are right not to press for impeachment because “if we impeached a President on narrow partisan lines, it would be bad for the country.” . . . Barry Goldwater, in Los Angeles, has urged the press “to cool it.” “There’s no sensible reason for him [Nixon] to resign—he’s not guilty of anything . . . so we’re going to have to live with him.” . . . Christian Science Monitor, having polled 193 congressmen and 32 senators, concludes Nixon will not be impeached (the votes aren’t there), but adds that he will remain severely handicapped by Watergate. . . . An American Conservative Union poll of its forty thousand members shows them overwhelmingly against either impeachment or resignation. Should Nixon resign? No, 89 per cent; yes, 6 per cent. Should Nixon be impeached? No, 90 per cent; yes, 2 per cent. Should conservatives in Congress actively oppose impeachment? Yes, 86 per cent; no, 9 per cent. . . . How badly has Watergate hurt the Party? Very badly, Dr. George Gallup told the Republican governors in Memphis, Tennessee, and it would be “wishful thinking” to believe otherwise post Nov. 6. Gallup says fewer Americans say they will vote Republican today than at any time since he started polling in 1935. . . . Which the latest Harris poll confirms. Harris finds only 25 per cent of the voters listing themselves as Republican as against 32 per cent in 1968 when Nixon was elected.
■ Watergate may not be the whole answer, but Republican politicians are showing themselves wary of running for office these days. 1) National Chairman George Bush says he won’t run against Texas Gov. Dolph Briscoe next year, despite urging by White House circles and John Connally, 2) Missouri Attorney General John Danforth, who came within a whisker of defeating Stuart Symington for the Senate in ’70, has opted out of the race against Sen. Thomas Eagleton next year, and 3) moderate Republican Rep. John Anderson, who had made noises about opposing Adlai Stevenson in Illinois, now admits “the specter of Watergate” has cooled those ambitions. . . . Not at all well taken in the White House, a letter sent out by Charles Percy’s Exploratory Committee to Ohio bigwigs soliciting their support for ’76. The letter, signed by Milton Eisenhower, says what the nation will be needing in its next President is a man “of absolute integrity, moral leadership … a leader the people believe in.”
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