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Senator
John Stennis stated he was ready, willing and able to verify
the accuracy
of transcripts prepared by the Nixon White House
Young
Republicans
Not Worried by
Watergate Scandal
By
Bobby Baker
Political Correspondent
LAS
VEGAS, Nev. – While their parents and political mentors
labor
to resolve the increasingly momentous crisis arising from the refusal
of President Nixon to comply with court orders for the release of
the Watergate tapes, the next generation of Young Republicans was able
to enjoy themselves at their annual convention. In
past years, their convention was held in Washington. However,
this year, the Teamsters Union, as a gesture of appreciation
for
all that the Republican Party had done for them, underwrote the cost of
entertaining a thousand young Republicans at Las Vegas's famed Sands
Hotel. Inside the hospitality
suite, guarded by a
stunning bikini-clad brunette known only as Judi, the future of the GOP
attended panels underwritten by convention sponsors, including the
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, the Distilled Spirits Council
and the Republic of Colombia. Although
the press was
not permitted into the working sessions, one could heard a buzz of
voices, punctuated by the sound of bullets fired from handguns given to
every attendee as a gift from Smith & Wesson. Around
breakfast time today, several young GOPers emerged from the suite,
apparently depleted by long hours of political discussion. A
tubby young man who gave his name only as "Newt" said that this was the
best convention he had ever attended and remarked on the openness and
receptivity of the local hostesses provided by longtime
Republican
Party stalwart Frank Sinatra. Asked
for his response
to dispute between Nixon and Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, Newt
said, "You want Cox? I'll show you Cox," and proceeded to drop
his
pants, which created a small disturbance.
He
was
followed by an animated young man who turned out to be a student at
Harvard Business School and the scion of one of the
Republican Party's
most distinguished political families, the Bushes. "I
gotta get a chili dog. Are you gonna get me one?" he asked
this
reporter. When told that the reporter was not a waiter, the
young
man jovially responded, "Then what good are you?" Asked
for his view on release of the Watergate tapes, young Bush said that
the question was a "total buzz killer," and that there was only one
thing he was interested in releasing. Bush
was
then joined by a man he hailed as "Pablo," who whispered something in
Bush's ear. This caused Senator Bush's grandson to scurry off
with the mysterious Latin American man, saying he had to blow. | | By
Scott V. Sandiford
Legal Correspondent The
Constitutional crisis engulfing the Capitol took an even graver turn
yesterday, with the announcement by President Richard M. Nixon that he
will ignore the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington to
turn over White House tapes subpoenaed by Special Prosecutor Archibald
Cox. Nixon told a diminishing
group of toadies deep in the White House
bunker [Surely, Oval
Office? – Ed.] that he was standing on the
principle of executive privilege. "If I turn over these tapes,
future Presidents might face demands to reveal conversations with aides
in response to bogus investigations of so-called 'obstructions
of justice.'
This I cannot permit." Instead,
Nixon offered to
allow the senescent Sen. John Stennis (R – Klan) to
review
White House transcripts of selected portions of the tapes and then
tell Cox he had nothing to worry about and it was time to go home to
his fellow pointed-headed liberals in Cambridge. "The question is whether
the Special Prosecutor wants to get at the facts or whether he wants to
engage in a partisan fishing expedition for the benefit of Democrats
like his fellow Massachusetts liberal, Ted Kennedy," snarled White
House mouthpiece Ron Ziegler at the regular White House Press Briefing.
"Of course, the liberal media will never
fairly
report the President's generous and reasonable offer. Someday, perhaps
there will be a fair and balanced television news network that will
allow people to decide for themselves that Richard M. Nixon is not a
crook," he added. From
the wings of the briefing room, rotund Nixon ad man Roger Ailes smiled
seraphically and then disappeared. Asked where Ailes had run
off to, Ziegler said only that he had an important telephone conference
call "with Australia."
A
spokesman for the Special Prosecutor said only that Mr. Cox wanted all
relevant evidence presented to the Watergate Grand Jury "in the
interests of justice." Senate
Republicans were quick to condemn the Special Prosecutor's request for
the Presidential tapes as "partisan." "Nixon
has already said he did nothing wrong. That's good enough for
me," said Sen. Howard Baker (R – Elevators). The
White House refused to say whether it would
appeal the decision of the Court of Appeals. Some
presidential advisers were known to be concerned that an adverse
Supreme Court decision might raise the pressure on Nixon to comply.
Others report that Nixon appointee William Rehnquist has told
the White house that he would be able to "fix" the case without
difficulty. Rehnquist is known to
embrace a broad view of executive privilege. But some
long-time court watchers don't expect the Republican-dominated Supreme
Court to allow their party affiliations to affect their consideration
of a great Constitutional question.
Said
one court watcher: "The Supreme Court will stand on principle.
To quash the subpoena would be as crudely lawless as reversing a
presidential election because the Court didn't like the outcome."
Young Republicans at
their annual meeting in Las Vegas managed to suppress whatever concerns
they may have felt over the burgeoning Nixon tapes crisis
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