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Now Ervin has the broad support of not only the Senate's Democratic liberals but also its Democratic conservatives and many Republicans. Nixon's secretive handling of the Watergate affair has dismayed his strongest backers. Republican office holders feel that they are being needlessly tarred by Watergate and want the real culprits exposed. Also, many Congressmen disdain such intimate Nixon aides as John Ehrlichman, H.R. Haldeman and their assistants, who are often regarded by veteran politicians as arrogant, inexperienced and selfishly protective of the President. Noting that some members of the White House staff seem to be enmeshed in the Watergate affair, one Republican Senator said sarcastically: "It couldn't happen to a better bunch of guys."
In addition, Senators of both parties almost unanimously dispute Nixon's claim that Executive privilege protects his staff against congressional inquiry. That idea, unmentioned in the Constitution, rests on the doctrine of the separation of powers between the branches of Government. The thinking is that Congress cannot intrude upon the decision-making process of the Executive Branch and thus cannot demand to know the private advice that the President gets from his staff. Indeed, Presidents have traditionally demanded and been granted this privilege.
In his Watergate investigation, Sam Ervin is not trying to find out what White House aides may have told the President about some proper aspect of their official duties. He wants to know whether they took part in political ac tivities that may have been illegal or im proper or whether they know who did so. Yet Nixon has tried to ban any of his aides, even those no longer on his staff, from testifying before any con gressional committee. Last week the Washington Post revealed that Nixon's chief counsel, John W. Dean III, had cited this privilege to avoid releasing travel documents to the General Ac counting Office, which was trying to find out whether White House officials had made political campaign trips in Air Force planes without reimbursing the Government.
Wrong. The President will allow his staff members to respond to written questions from Ervin's committee. "But you cannot put a piece of paper under oath and cross-examine it," Ervin pro tested. Later, in a show of compromise, Nixon said that he would let some aides be questioned personally, but not un der oath and not in public. Yet Ervin in sists that, if the truth about Watergate is to emerge, the public — and not just a few Senators — has the right to "observe the demeanor of the witnesses and to judge their credibility."
The impasse between Ervin and Nixon seems to offer no avenue toward compromise. Nixon has said that he "would welcome" a court test on his de cree of Executive privilege, adding:
"Perhaps this is the time to have the highest court of this land make a de finitive decision." It is hard to find a legal scholar who thinks that Nixon would win his case.