University of Delaware - Blue Hen Yearbook (Newark, DE)

Page 20 text:

EDWARD BROOKE Two Massachusetts State Senators once got into an angry debate and one told the other to go to Hell. The Senator appealed to Governor Calvin Coolidge and asked Coolidge to do something about it. The Governor replied: 'I've looked up the law, Senator, and you don't have to go there. The men who surrounded the President viewed Con- gress as an inefficient and dilatory body. For the most part, I disagree. But, ! would suggest that efficiency in our government processes should not be the sole criteria of worth. At one time we may desire the prompt enact- ment of a certain law and chafe because it bogs down in institutional inertia. At another time we may rigorously oppose the enactment of a law and applaud the same inertia. There are proper and necessary limits to political activ- ity. Though the appreciation of these limits seems to have been lost in recent years, it can be regained. Poli- tics is the art of the possible and nothing more. I.F. STONE - Our Founding Fathers never felt they would have this kind Nixon of monster in the White House. 16

Page 19 text:

MR. GARRY WILLS There is one Nixon only, though there seem to be new ones all the time - he will try to be what people want. and decency. Now we have a visible, audible and tangi- ble crisis. What is suggested by this all too brief history of some past crises and semi-crises is a gradual erosion of public confidence. Somewhere deep within the infrastructure of our society, talent, below the threshold of our con- sciousness, we knew that extra-legal and despicable ac- tivities occurred in our pristine institutions. Even in the highest office of the land. Watergate was the catalyst, the last straw of tolerance and acquiesence. We cannot pre- tend to be innocent children under the auspices of a paternalistic and pure government anymore. SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN . If the system is screwed up it is your fault, not just mine. The crisis in confidence is topped off by Watergate and its subsequent inoperatives. The floodgates of ad- versity were opened; the Rubicon had been crossed. Now, the magic of the oval office and the forcefulness of the man in it are diminished; the hierarchy of command is virtually shattered and the confusion in the administra- tion is beyond our political comprehension. The Presi- dent's culpability in the Watergate affair is suspect and, yes, his silent majority is transposed into a restless minority.

Page 21 text:

DANIEL ELLSBERG - Tonight is the fourth anniversary of the night Tony Russo and I be- gan to xerox the Pentagon Papers. I did expect to go to prison forever for what I had done. The guestion arises: Was it an aberrant ad- ministration that caused this loss of moral and philosophical direction or who confused our national goals and ideals by touting watch what we say. not what we do? Former Attor- ney General John Mitchell. How did such a seemingly innocuous episode snowball into the ultimate test of our system? The answer to the second question rests with the system it- selt. In a free society our weaknesses and shortcomings are manifest for all to see and therein lies our strength. Immunity from pro- sacution is an ex post facto device. The pur- suit of the truth is inherent to a viable United States. The answer to the first question is yes. Our laws are far from perfect, but fai- lure to observe legal guidelines is not neces- sarily due to imperfect and faulty laws. Men formulate the law and only men can decide whether or not to abide by it. Some in the Nixon administration were wil- ling to disregard some of the laws in order to perpetuate themselves in power. The perjur- ers, burglers, buggers and bunglers were team players. And like wayward children we did not listen, but rather watched what they did. 17