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Promptly demonstrating that he needed neither, Buchanan turned back all suggestions that his memos advocated anything illegal or improper in politics. While readily agreeing that Democratic improprieties do not justify Republican misdeeds (" Tu quoque is the weakest of all arguments"), Buchanan took every opportunity to cite political tactics by Democrats that he considered worse than anything Republicans had done. What could be worse, he suggested, than George McGovern's comparing Nixon with Adolf Hitler and U.S. war policy in Southeast Asia with Hitler's extermination of Jews.* But what kind of political activity did he advocate? "Anything that was not considered immoral, unethical, illegal—or unprecedented in previous Democratic campaigns," Buchanan replied to sympathetic caucus-room laughter.
Buchanan suggested that campaign tactics could be put into four tidy categories: "Utterly outrageous, dirty tricks, political hardball and pranks." Not pressed to define them, he cultivated the impression, as had other Watergate witnesses, that most of what have been reported as Republican attempts to "sabotage" Democratic campaigns were, in reality, mere pranks.
Buchanan readily termed the Watergate wiretapping "wrong" and "a crime." He found the distribution of a pamphlet during the Florida primary, charging Senators Hubert Humphrey and Henry Jackson with sexual misconduct, to be an act that "crosses the line" into impropriety; he viewed electronic surveillance in politics as wrong (it is also a crime); and he considered the diversion of campaign contributions given for one candidate to the campaign of another to be illegal.
No Judgment. Buchanan termed it routine for one party to try to influence the outcome of another party's primary elections so as to be able to run against the opponent's weakest candidate. He stoutly defended his memos urging that Nixon campaign efforts be directed at deflating Muskie since he considered Muskie far tougher for Nixon to defeat than McGovern would be. But Buchanan insisted that none of the anti-Muskie efforts were improper or illegal. He denied urging infiltration of the Muskie campaign. Buchanan said that he would never serve as such a spy himself, since that would involve deceiving someone for whom he pretended to be working, but, he added: "I would not want to sit in judgment of the ethics of others."
The committee failed dismally in trying to pin down this elastic concept of political ethics. Buchanan admitted editing a pamphlet that he agreed had grossly misrepresented Muskie's position on why it would be impractical to run a black as Vice President in 1972. His glib explanation: "This is exaggerated, hyperbolic, political rhetoric."
With Buchanan's testimony, the Ervin hearings moved into their examination of dirty political tricks. But the manner in which he verbally manhandled the Senators discouraged some staff members, who feel that this phase may not prove fruitful. "We could close up shop and write our report right now," declared one staff member. Yet, whether the hearings are televised or not, to end them after exploring only the Watergate crisis would amount to a committee copout.