"We've got problems with that fellow ...uh...uh..." "Jaworski?" "Yes."
Telephoning Martha Mitchell-style from seclusion in San Clemente, Richard Nixon could perhaps be excused a mental block in failing to remember the name of Watergate Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski. As related by the recipient of the call, Republican Congressman Dan Kuykendall of Tennessee, Nixon thanked him for his longtime support and seemed concerned about his own future. "Do you think the people are going to want to pick the carcass?" asked the former President.
The metaphor was just as grisly but no more apt than Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott's claim that Nixon had been "hung" and need not be "drawn and quartered." The plain fact is that the former President's own tapes provide prima-facie evidence that he was a participant in the Watergate cover-up conspiracy for which his aides have been charged with crimes. It is on that basis that Nixon does indeed have "problems" with Jaworski.
TIME has learned, however, that it is highly unlikely that Nixon will be charged with a crime until after the conspiracy trial of six of his former aides at least gets under way and its jury is sequestered. To indict Nixon before then and make him a defendant in the same trial would require a long delay while he prepared his defense. To indict him and seek a separate trial would generate new publicity that would make the selection of a jury for the trial of the others extremely difficult.
The way was apparently cleared last week for the conspiracy trial to begin on Sept. 30. The appeal of one of the defendants, John Ehrlichman, for a longer delay was turned down by Chief Justice Warren Burger of the Supreme Court. At the moment, Nixon is scheduled to be a witness at that trial, since a subpoena from Ehrlichman's lawyers was finally served privately on Nixon at San Clemente by a U.S. marshal. What action Nixon will take, if any, to avoid that appearance undoubtedly will be one of the first duties of Nixon's new personal Watergate defense lawyer, Herbert John (Jack) Miller Jr. The Washington firm Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & LeVin accepted the task after at least one, and possibly three law firms rejected overtures to defend Nixon.
Pun-Loving. Miller, 50, brings unique qualifications to his Nixon defense role. A Republican who campaigned for Robert Kennedy in his 1968 presidential primary drive, Miller had served as chief of the Justice Department's Criminal Division when Kennedy was Attorney General. There he became acquainted with many members of the present Jaworski staff, including James Neal, who will head the prosecution team in the conspiracy trial. A frequent guest at Kennedy's Hickory Hill estate, the gregarious, pun-loving Miller retained his Republican credentials by running, unsuccessfully, for Lieutenant Governor of Maryland in 1970. He was among the personal advisers summoned by Senator Edward Kennedy to Hyannis Port after the Senator's 1969 accident at Chappaquiddick.