European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 16, 1973, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes John p. Roche Friday november 16, 1973 nonpolitical columns draw greatest response for Over five years now this column has been appearing three times a week. For eccentric Rea sons growing out of my White House experience i have never put together a research  i always found that it was less work to do the research myself than to clean up the mistakes of others so every week the Maga Zines and newspapers come flow ing in from All Over the world and i sit Down in my study and go through them trying to make sense out of politics foreign and Domestic. Admittedly i am a rapid Reader but it s a lot of  Point of this is not to award myself a medal editors and readers after All Are the Only persons with the right to evaluate what comes out of my Type writer. On the contrary the most ironic aspect of the whole enter prise one quite humbling to the ego is the fantastic response i receive to non political columns. There is a steady flow on those with a political focus usually highly critical reactionaries in los Angeles Call me a com Mie new left types in Detroit accuse me of Selling out to the reactionaries and then there Are the nuts with their red Felt tip pens who scrawl scabrous observations on the columns and Send them Back. But for some reason or other maybe because the Reading Public is sick of politics those essays which Are usually therapeutic exercises in which i unload my aggressions really Bur Den the mailman. Last summer for example after trying in store after store to buy some Cotton clothes unadulterated with polyester i came Home and literally in a fury Tore off a piece on the shortage of Cotton shirts. For weeks thereafter the letters poured in until i ended up with a file about an Inch thick. Not one of them was Nasty. Then after being almost Creame d by a Guy careening Down the Road at me hauling a motor Home in a Strong Cross draft i sat Down to get revenge. Unfortunately i used the Tern Mobile Home which technically is a House weighing perhaps 15,000 pounds and the Wrath of the Mobile Home Industry descended upon my head. But dozens of readers who knew exactly what i had in mind wrote to Tell me of their near misses and to Echo my plea for strict Laws regulating the behaviour of cars towing boats trailers motor Homes now i got it right and other assorted Highway Haz  it has happened again and i. Am thinking of cancelling All those subscriptions to american British French Hong Kong and other journals. It began when i Learned to my Delight that educational television was putting on a series of mystery shows two of which featured one of my favorite detectives lord Peter Wimsey. For years i have complained about the Way both Hollywood and to ignored the Superb detecting of Wimsey Hercule Poirot Alan Grant and of course inspector Maigret but always in the family Circle. This time i wrote a column. Now from All Over the country the mail is piling up and my wife is out looking for several authors that were highly recommended. At the same time though it does set one to wondering. Maybe the political columnist is a species that has not Learned it is extinct. C King features Syndicate executive office building James. And keep it under fifty Tom Braden the Constitution and the crisis senators say they Are Trou bled by the constitutional prob Lem which might be posed if they pass legislation permitting the courts to appoint a special prosecutor. Or. Nixon s men Are doing their Best to make sure that Sena tors remain troubled. The Nixon argument put for Ward by acting atty. Gen. Robert Bork goes like this it is the function of the executive Branch to prosecute and of the judicial Branch to judge. Therefore prosecution by the judicial Branch violates the separation of Powers. The supreme court someday will say so and when it does say so All those pronounced guilty of watergate crimes will go free. That s the White House argument. But senators Are deter mined never again to permit the president to flaunt his promises by firing a special prosecutor or by so intimidating him that he will not ask for evidence out of fear that if he does he will be fired. What s the answer to this dilemma is it to rely on or Nixon s new prosecutor Leon Jaworski a lot of senators mistrust Jaworski and Don t like the Circum stances under which he took the columns and comment Job so they Are looking around for constitutional arguments to counter those put Forward by the White House and by Bork. The Best of these is provided in article ii Section 2 of the Constitution itself the Congress May by Law Vest the appointment of Roscoe Drummond second thoughts on demands for resignation president Nixon is begin Ning to turn the tables somewhat on those who say he can t Possi Bly under any circumstances re cover from watergate. For weeks the insistent ques Tion has been should t Nixon resign because he can no longer do his Job effectively now in View of the vigorous wide ranging Well considered program which he has put before Congress and the country to Deal with the Energy crisis a new and related question is will the democratically controlled con Gress do its part in governing or will it drag its feet for political reasons vital Energy conservation and Energy development legislation urgently needs to be passed in the next few weeks and what happens will soon Tell us whether Nixon s critics in Congress pre Fer to harass the president or Are willing to put watergate sufficiently aside to do what is needed to enable government to govern. I think Good judgment will prevail. I am not urging that the grave issues of watergate be adjourned but we do need to avoid both Whitewash and persecution and get on with transacting the Public business. It is Worth noting that Many who have been calling for presi Dent Nixon to resign Are having second thoughts very serious second  Are beginning to realize that resignation would resolve none of the unanswered questions which still surround water  perceive that if the presi Dent should yield to their pres sure to resign this might Well leave in its Trail Public Dis i satisfaction and confusion which would rebound against those who did most to bring it about. They Are beginning to sense that pressured resignation is a dangerous disorderly Way of the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes itself or of the United states government. Dealing with a crisis of Confidence and no proper substitute for the orderly constitutional process of impeachment. And finally they see that president Nixon is not going to do their work for them by self impeachment and that Public Opin Ion May Well prove to be a Wall of opposition to resignation. The latest Gallup poll for example shows that while a sub Stantial majority of people 57 percent disapprove of the Way Nixon is handling his Job an even greater majority 62 per cent do not want him to  suggests that most Ameri cans Are seeing beyond their prevailing dissatisfaction with Nixon s recent conduct and Are concluding that despite their Dis satisfaction they think Resigna Tion would be harmful and in Welcome. It is significant that some who have been most critical of Nixon Are now warning against Resig  Wicker writes in the new York times the clamor for Richard Nixon s resignation. Risks a Rush to decision rather than an exercise of judgment and it pro poses a constitutional shortcut when the primary problem is that the Constitution already has been too often neglected and in  process of impeachment is the Constitution s Way of dealing with the consequences of water Gate. Let s use it. The Washington Post also Steps Back from joining the advocates of resignation. It seems to us that the Case for resignation is not necessarily overwhelmingly stronger than the Case for  this is an Odd Way of putting it because it is evident that to some considerable degree the pressure for resignation rests on the feeling that the Case for impeachment is weak and that the Only Way his critics can win is to try to make life for the president so intolerable that he is forced to resign. C us Angeles times Syndicate special inferior officers As they think proper in the president alone in the courts or in the Heads  under this article Congress has vested in the District courts the Power to appoint bankruptcy referees . Commissioners and . Attorneys for districts in which the office becomes vacant. Since 1898, the Law has declared that the District court in which the office of . Attorney is vacant May appoint a . At Torney to serve until the vacancy is  As recently As 1963, the practice was held to be constitutional and it seems at least roughly analogous to the appoint ment by the courts of a special prosecutor. But the leading Case on the Validity of permitting the courts to make appointments is sex Parte Siebold 1879. In this Case the court upheld enforcement of a Law which gave circuit courts the Power to appoint supervisors of elections. As the Constitution stands wrote the court referring to article ii Section 2, the selection of the appointing Power As Between the functionaries named executive and judicial branches rests in the discretion of the Congress. And looking at the subject in a practical Light it is perhaps better that it should rest there than that the country should be harassed by the end less controversies to which a More specific direction on this subject matter might have Given  sex Parte Siebold might be overruled and watergate guilty go free. That is the danger of legislation giving the courts author Ity to. Appoint a special prose  but senators see an even Graver danger if they Don t pass such legislation. The Graver Dan Ger is or. Nixon s insistence that he and Only he has the Power to investigate himself. Left unchallenged that assertion could set a precedent that would make the presidency clearly and irrevocably above Law. Chief Justice John Marshall once wrote the Constitution is intended to endure for Ages to come and consequently to be adapted to the various crises of human  the president s claim to be above Law is surely a crisis and Marshall s dictum is the Wisest guide for dealing with it. C us Angeles times Syndicate