Republican leaders pressure Nixon to resign

By Godfrey Sperling Jr. | Staff correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Washington

The great debate here and throughout the U.S. centers on one question: What would it take to convince the President he should step down?

It has been learned that the most powerful man in the Republican party structure - national chairman George Bush - is giving serious consideration to calling on Mr. Nixon to resign. He has issued a few words of token loyalty. But Mr. Bush is pictured today as being in “deep agony” over a decision which may lead him to a dramatic break with Mr. Nixon.

Should Mr. Bush bolt this could be the “last straw,” the move that might shatter the President’s avowed insistence on sticking it out. Mr. Bush has met with Republican leaders of both houses and with the Vice-President as he weighs an open break with the President.

Members of the Senate Republican Policy Committee were meeting for the third time Wednesday morning, discussing “Topic A,” how best to get the President to resign.

Should they lead a delegation to the President with this request? There were members of this group (the committee includes Hugh Scott, Barry Goldwater, Jacob K. Javits, John G. Tower, Robert P. Griffin, Peter H. Dominick, Roman L. Hruska, Marlow W. Cook, and George D. Aiken among others) who were urging this action.

Senator Goldwater - ” Mr. Republican” to many throughout the country - could also be pivotal in getting Mr. Nixon to resign. But - up to now - he publicly has insisted that the constitutional process must be followed to their very end, in both House and Senate.

Yet it is reliably reported that the Senator feels the President is done - and that he has said as much to his Senate colleagues.

Thus, under persuasion from other conservative senators, Mr. Goldwater might yet lead a delegation to the White House with a request for Mr. Nixon to call it a day.

According to the Providence Journal-Bulletin Wednesday, President Nixon has made an “irrevocable” decision to resign, the Associated Press reported. The paper quoted “a reliable source close to the President” as saying Mr. Nixon “has come to the conclusion that the national interest may best be served by his resignation, irrespective of the massive injustice committed against him that prompted his painful decision on his part.”

The source said, “I can tell you that the decision is irrevocable.”

The Phoenix Gazette also reported that President Nixon’s resignation was imminent, according to the Reuter news service.

The paper quoted very reliable sources in Washington for its information. Many of the President’s closest associates have lived in or now reside in Phoenix, including former Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst and Sen. Barry Goldwater.

A White House spokesman responded: “The President does not intend to resign.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Edward W. Brooke, a liberal Senate Republican, said Wednesday that several Republican senators had contacted President Nixon and urged him to resign. “The message has been sent to the President,” Senator Brooke told reporters.

“To my knowledge no response has been received.”

The real imponderable in the equation is this: Is there any amount of pressure or persuasion that will convince Mr. Nixon he should resign?

Mr. Nixon insists he will stay on to a final resolution in the Senate. He tells this to his aides. He has told it to his Cabinet. There are aides and close associates who think he means it precisely.

Said one assistant who sat in with the President recently at Camp David and heard Mr. Nixon say with great determination he would not quit:
“He feels if he steps down this will be an admission of guilt which will hurt him in the definitive assessment of his record in years to come.

“No, he thinks his best bet, for the long run, is to stay in there.”

Others here who know Mr. Nixon well, and through the years since he has been in politics, say that the whole key to what he does lies in his book, “Six Crises.”

The basic theme of Mr. Nixon’s book is the extreme crisis which has dogged his public life. But there is also another persistent theme: a happy ending. There is always a victory at the end of the long and protracted travail.