For the Record

When presidential adviser Bryce Harlow conferred with House Republican leaders on the Tuesday following what Washington is calling the “Saturday night massacre,” he was told by John Anderson, the liberal congressman from Illinois, head of the powerful House Republican Conference, that House Republicans wouldn’t back the President unless Mr. Nixon turned over the tapes. What’s more, conservative Rep. John Rhodes (Ariz.), who will probably succeed Gerald Ford as Minority Leader, and Leslie Arends, the Minority Whip, agreed with Anderson…. By Tuesday morning, ninety members of the House had cosponsored a bill to set up another special prosecutor independent of the President to continue the Archibald Cox investigations. . . . Similar legislation in the Senate had the initial backing of Senators Kennedy, Bayh, Byrd (Robert), Mondale, Tunney, and Cranston. . . . The Ripon Society was hot on the heels of the ADA and the ACLU is calling for the impeachment of Mr. Nixon because his actions (prior to surrendering the tapes) “constitute criminal contempt and obstruction of justice.” . . . Rep. Edward Boland (D., Mass.), in a break with most of his Democratic colleagues, said the surrender of the tapes “cripples the impeachment move, unless he [Nixon] has crippled the tapes.” . . . Peter Hart, a pollster used by the Democratic Party, said he’d never seen ratings as low as those of the President’s right after the firing of Cox. “They’re lower even than Lindsay at his worst point in New York,” he added.

Rep. Donald Fraser, chairman of the ADA, and an advocate of impeachment procedures, has warned that a failure by Congress to proceed apace with the confirmation of Gerry Ford could make impeachment “a very bitter partisan battle.” . . . Rep. Morris Udall (D., Ariz.) agrees with Speaker Carl Albert that Ford must not be held “hostage” by Congress during the next weeks. . . . Conservative Rep. Philip Crane (R., Ill.) says the possibility that Nixon would be impeached, Ford not confirmed, and Carl Albert become President “is too bizarre to contemplate.” . . . Sen. Robert Griffin (R., Mich.), incidentally, has introduced a constitutional amendment that would put an end to the election of Vice Presidents by the electorate, have them chosen instead by the President and the Congress.

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When presidential adviser Bryce Harlow conferred with House Republican leaders on the Tuesday following what Washington is calling the “Saturday night massacre,” he was told by John Anderson, the liberal congressman from Illinois, head of the powerful House Republican Conference, that House Republicans wouldn’t back the President unless Mr. Nixon turned over the tapes. What’s more, conservative Rep. John Rhodes (Ariz.), who will probably succeed Gerald Ford as Minority Leader, and Leslie Arends, the Minority Whip, agreed with Anderson…. By Tuesday morning, ninety members of the House had cosponsored a bill to set up another special prosecutor independent of the President to continue the Archibald Cox investigations. . . . Similar legislation in the Senate had the initial backing of Senators Kennedy, Bayh, Byrd (Robert), Mondale, Tunney, and Cranston. . . . The Ripon Society was hot on the heels of the ADA and the ACLU is calling for the impeachment of Mr. Nixon because his actions (prior to surrendering the tapes) “constitute criminal contempt and obstruction of justice.” . . . Rep. Edward Boland (D., Mass.), in a break with most of his Democratic colleagues, said the surrender of the tapes “cripples the impeachment move, unless he [Nixon] has crippled the tapes.” . . . Peter Hart, a pollster used by the Democratic Party, said he’d never seen ratings as low as those of the President’s right after the firing of Cox. “They’re lower even than Lindsay at his worst point in New York,” he added.

Rep. Donald Fraser, chairman of the ADA, and an advocate of impeachment procedures, has warned that a failure by Congress to proceed apace with the confirmation of Gerry Ford could make impeachment “a very bitter partisan battle.” . . . Rep. Morris Udall (D., Ariz.) agrees with Speaker Carl Albert that Ford must not be held “hostage” by Congress during the next weeks. . . . Conservative Rep. Philip Crane (R., Ill.) says the possibility that Nixon would be impeached, Ford not confirmed, and Carl Albert become President “is too bizarre to contemplate.” . . . Sen. Robert Griffin (R., Mich.), incidentally, has introduced a constitutional amendment that would put an end to the election of Vice Presidents by the electorate, have them chosen instead by the President and the Congress.