1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-08-01; Part 7 of 7

it's been and so i think that the democrats have a vested interest in delaying mr paulson's appearance as long as possible to have also been told that there's a possibility that actually the recession the committee hearings that television coverage would need to be reduced or completely eliminated been that the democrats in dealing with people's spirits are hoping that he will be not denied an opportunity to clear himself in the press or plaster john wyden what would they have gone ahead with all minority and both of them are also very adamantly support of the president's position as i understand it mr golson may have some things to sail one of mental specifically which will be a significantly different in terms of what they've taken recently that i stand on the subject of mr coleman for a moment jeff merkley how would you as an experienced trial lawyer to assess mr holland's performance and strictly witness terms and in very high grades

champion he hasn't yet responded air about him at this particular point in time in these hearings following jonathan's know the belligerents in the cost of the restaurant in income surprisingly across as a man governor easley me and for gentleness warmth the willingness to comply with the needs of requests of the committee a man who responds to work a difficult question sometimes badgering questions with no apparent pain and with the great to the patients and without responding fashion was on the governor's party really a difficult question so i given high marks however if you'll forgive the elegant simplicity and in the following mark i think the discerning observer lou you see some problem that contrasted with a looser warm and forthcoming to me on his part are certain facts will listen to whatever manner

by mothers and whiter regarding certain memorandum to which are all about without approving or an offer in which very unpleasant kinds of practices were suggested the memorandum of the war in nineteen seventy three as part of a counterattack against the formation of a committee suggesting effort to trace all demonstrations and seventy two back to the democrats in october of seventy one a memorandum which he had written upon which indicated his approval of the notion that the national news and they made of the fact that demonstrations around the subway to be threatening to have a president charlotte north carolina as well as jordan billy graham and in addition to those pacific and others recognition of that time general problem i find in the lapses in memory he seems to suffer from an insecure scrupulous reputation as a refugee protest last tournament define what had done got it done i'm surprised at his inability to recall even some of the fairly recent been interesting to me a

critical and in the setting would've been highly memorable but in general and that positive image and one john mackey you've won five western ukraine of those who charge that the senate watergate hearings generally amount to nothing more than attempt to publicly lynch president nixon well i think perhaps lynch is too strong a word but i think it's clear from anyone who's watching the committees closely with their certain members who are at least beginning to build the gallows or the alternatives to this kind of a measure which may mean alternative is true the american public finding out what did or did not happen in watergate well i think that there's an alternative to a lynch mob into that sort of procedure i would just suggest something short of that i mean within our system what would it be what we're talking about here is demeanor and then i return again senator worker because quite frankly i'm somewhat upset by the way he's preceded it appears that he's appointed himself head of the committee's department dirty tricks are some

questions and methods issues and quite frankly i would hope you would knock it off and that kind of thing i'm talking about i don't think it's necessary in order to lessen information from witnesses to try to pull the little tricks that he's credible by super imposing quotes and the things like that that's what i object to say i don't like you very much at the closing today's testimony hr haldeman's attorney made some news on his own outside the hearing room john wilson had comments about senator weicker and senator an hour seven hundred thousand that's right

and business and the same thing happened in nineteen sixty two in california and said that he was involved some illegal activities had been cited for it and they and i got word that he was saying that that holman was a defendant in the case of that at most it was the days and aggressive about how we this morning ivey chairman struck a video that they have about the set of animal it to get this evidence and i wanted some that i hadn't backed them to women's voices i don't

know senator nowhere literature that wilson's commons to let return to summer heat for some closing comments and i recalled and that's peter came from capitol hill the second of the watergate committee star witnesses departed today leaving us with two basic unanswered questions whatnot we know and where we go a lot of the sensors is pretty easy despite a combined eight days of testimony by john ehrlichman and bob haldeman we really don't know anything very new they gave us expected official answers watergate and its cover up or jundi and farmer john mitchell they're somebody else's and a haldeman ehrlichman were much too busy on important things to pay much attention put together these two former top aides to the president there was a fascinating picture of the kind of witness richard nixon would be in the unlikely event that he ever showed up and testify before the committee

erlichman was aggressive and antagonistic like the next new six crises i did it and i'm right and if you don't like it that's just to get an effect that's what he told the committee haldeman as nixon a recluse the man who decided what was important and what was not the one who apparently shield the president from facts of any ordinary american citizen could have gotten by reading the newspapers or by watching television other the culture of these two witnesses however means the committee angry an edgy fatigued and frustrated that's not turned a lesser witnesses during the final days of this watergate phase of the hearings already partisan cracks are appearing in the facade of unity some members want to go home others would like to see the whole thing through and after thirty three days of hearings we still don't know who is responsible for watergate and they sort of the white house horrors so what we go from here the witnesses from the cia and the fbi to more contradictions and more confusion to lessening interest

and heightening doubts only the white house tapes can shed some light on all of this we are light years away from hearing them it is ironic and unfortunate that a committee established to find out who bought the watergate can only find its ultimate answer from the man who'd bought the white house tomorrow night at the same time i knew from peter carey and jim lehrer good night for him from washington you've been watching gavel to gavel videotape coverage of hearings but the senate select committee on presidential campaign activities as coverage is made possible by grants for special events coverage from the corporation for public broadcasting and the ford foundation and has been a production of unpacked and a vision of a greater washington educational telecommunications association you're end nd