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Even by chance, some observers ran across traces of that Watergate bugging operation before it was revealed. John Lofton, editor of the Republican National Committee's publication, Monday, told FBI agents that he visited Magruder's office at the Nixon committee shortly before the June 17 arrests. He noticed a file on Magruder's desk labeled "Gemstone I." Without mentioning any spying activities, Magruder cited some gossip about National Democratic Chairman Larry O'Brien. Lofton asked if he could use it in Monday. "Absolutely not," Magruder cautioned. After he read about Watergate, Lofton phoned Magruder and joked innocently: "Well, there goes Gemstone I." There was dead silence from Magruder, then the cold warning: "Don't ever use that name again." Gemstone was the code word used on the typed summaries of the illegally acquired telephone conversations of the Democrats.
Whatever the degrees of guilt in the scandal, Watergate is, of course, a tragedy for the men involved and for their families. As a friend of Jo Haldeman explained: "There is no way to measure the toll. She is about as strong as he is. She'll be all right. But it's a problem for the kids. There's no way around it at school." The Haldemans have four children. Jeanne Ehrlichman, a very private woman, said firmly: "I just know my husband is going to be proved innocent." Clutching a childhood Bible, Martha Mitchell attracted a press throng as she appeared in a Manhattan law office to give a deposition in a Watergate civil suit. But she disappointed everyone by confessing that she had no personal knowledge of the affair. She said that Husband John had always assured her he had not been involved, and "I trust and pray to God" that he was not.
The personal suffering would readily give way to a far greater public trauma if the President were proved to be implicated. Everyone on Capitol Hill dreads the very thought of impeachment, but it is being openly mentioned for the first time in memory. Barry Goldwater conceded last week: "If it were shown that he was in this, there's no question at all that there would be impeachment proceedings."
Nightmare. The procedure, used against only one President in U.S. history, Andrew Johnson in 1868, would require any member of the House to offer a resolution to investigate grounds for impeachment. It would be referred to either the House Judiciary Committee or a special committee, which would take evidence in full-dress public hearings. If the committee decided on the basis of the hearings that there is sufficient evidence to support the charges, an impeachment resolution would be sent to the House. By majority vote, the House could approve it.
The Senate would then be notified, as would the President, and he would be given a chance to file written answers to the charges raised by the House. The Chief Justice of the U.S. would then preside over the Senate, which would convene as a court of impeachment. There would be a