European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 22, 1973, Darmstadt, Hesse                              Thursday november 22, 1973 William Safire the stars and stripes background noises Page 9 innocent plea May not help much in solving Republican problems if the Nixon problem is not resolved warns the Edito rial voice of the new York times the Republican party will suffer a political holocaust in the 1974 and 1976  is this True if the party does not dump the president that is what resolving the Nixon prob Lem Means will democrats be Able to bedevil the next generation of republicans with water Gate As they flayed a past generation with memories of the de pression first Grant the damage though republicans will claim they had nothing to do with the Nixon Campaign of 1972, much less the watergate break in their protestations will Cut no ice. Nixon was their candidate and the Headquarters bugged at 2600 Virginia Avenue in Washington was not the Republican head quarters. Fairly or not candidates of the party of the people will be i neighing against the party of the plumbers for years to come just As for while running against Landon Willkie and Dewey always ran against Hoo ver. Watergate will have its Polit ical Cost whether or not republicans seek political absolution by offering up their Leader As a Sac Rifice. But will that Cost be a Holo Caust let s examine How water Gate will fall out on different groups of republicans 1incumbent Republican officeholders. If Nixon is still at 27 per cent next year a senator up for re election in 1974 told me i m  but the president s future unpopularity will not be based on watergate alone 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. John p. Roche next year says another con Gressman ill worry most about a Gas shortage at Harvest  Republican congressmen View an impeachment vote As a loser either Way. Whatever their decision they would lose More support than they would gain among their constituents. Republican incumbents Are right to be worried about 1974, though not primarily because of watergate. Of much greater con Cern to them is the state of the Economy a year from now. 2potential Republican Candi dates against democratic office holders. So far we have seen re publican National committee chairman George Bush walk away from an Opportunity to be columns and comment governor of Texas and representatives disavowing any intent to run for the Senate which makes it seem thai a Republican Nomi nation is hardly a Plum. But in a few months with investigators hot on the Chisholm Trail and after the exposure of irregularities in the financing of other democratic candidates the Way will be Clear for campaigns based on an elemental a peal All politicians Are  such an Appeal is unfair in True and unavoidable. Next year will be the year of the reformer whom former new York mayor Jimmy Walker defined As the Guy who rides through a sewer in a Glass bottomed  3the Republican foot sol Dier. More important than the crackers of mime machines at party Headquarters who make up what is called the party leadership More important than the ideologues who Sally Forth from the Ripon society and the human events crowd to tug the party philosophy left or right is the Stalwart who goes out on a Rainy Day to vote in a Republican primary. What about the Republican foot Soldier does he feel betrayed yes. Does he feel guilty no. Does he feel he must resolve the Nixon problem before he can see his party triumphant at the local level of course not. The Republican party is not a guilty party. It Hopes that an in easy peace and a hard to enjoy Prosperity will help it Roll with the punch. And even unpopular Richard Nixon is not without a perverse political clout if a con Gressman Steps out of line the president can threaten to come to his District at election time and Campaign in his support. C new York times James j. Kilpatrick newest member of the family dear Douglas i have been writing columns of grand fatherly Wisdom off and on for several years in the form of letters to your older sister Heather but in the thought that grand fatherly Wisdom should be expended sparingly there not being much of it to begin with i had not intended to make you a literary figure also. Yet the fairness doctrine applies. Heather at three has every thing going for her she can run system of checks and balances we in the United states do not As i have noted Here be fore have a system of separa Tion of Powers but rather one of checks and balances Between three independently based bodies the executive the legislative and the judicial. The president is responsible to a National constituency the Congress to state and District electorates and the Federal judges once in place to god and the actuarial tables. At the moment however there is a concerted movement to subvert this historic balance of forces and replace it by a Boot legged Brand of parliamentary government. The movement has taken several forms the most naive of which was the proposal that president Nixon should appoint a leading Democrat As vice president and then resign. Admittedly this would be a charming gesture of conciliation and reconciliation but the fact is that or. Nixon got 60 per cent of the votes for president in 1972. It May Well be doubtful whether he could win today but by the same Token Harry Truman should have quit in 1947 the 1946 congressional elections indicated a Mas Sive repudiation of democratic leadership. Indeed it was suggested at the time that Truman appoint Thomas e. Dewey a Secretary of state there was no vice president and under the Law then operative the Secretary of state succeeded to a vacant presidency and quit. Truman s retort was unprintable. In Short i believe the Congress should move rapidly to confirm Gerald Ford As vice president. True he is not a Man with whom i have much in common Politi Cally speaking but my party lost the election. Nor is he a Liberal Republican but Liberal republicans can t win presidential nominations. He is a main Stream right of Center Republican an accurate reflection of the View Point that triumphed at the polls a year ago. That political position might Well lose in 1976 i Hope so but this is 1973. But must we wait until 1976? a constitutional convention recently met at somebody s Home in Cambridge mass., and pro posed a special election. This was subsequently publicized in an article by mayor Kevin White of Boston. Somebody in search of a usable past went rummaging around through the Early stat utes and discovered that a presidential succession act passed on March 1, 1792, provided in White s formulation for a special popular election to fill the void when both the president and vice president Are out of circulation. White sidesteps the fact that before this procedure could be undertaken two events would have to take place 1 president Nixon would have to resign or be convicted in an impeachment trial and 2 con Gress would have to pass a new presidential succession act authorizing a special election a measure which in my judgment would suffer from grave constitutional defects. C King features Syndicate like a Colt talk in big words and make herself a Sam Mich. She is getting old Heather is and until you Are 18 and she is 21, she is going to seem positively ancient. Big Sisters Are that Way. By contrast beloved grandson you have very Little going for you now. You Are ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes a soft Pink Tongue and a pair of awesome lungs. Your dark Irish eyes Are just be ginning to focus on the world of 1973, which you entered two months ago and All of discovery still lies ahead. But you do have this with your christening last sunday you Are now officially and formally a member of the family a family that embraces a billion Brothers Sisters and cousins of every race color and nationality around the world. On Ward my Small Christian sol Dier howling As you go you were sworn into the Chris Tian brotherhood renouncing the Devil and All his works in a Little White steeped Church in Washington a. Ecclesiastic ally speaking you Are thus domiciled in Tappahannock county in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United states of America on the North american continent on the planet Earth spinning in a Galaxy somewhere in the eternity of space. In the presence of a congregation of 22, mostly aunts and uncles you Douglas Stone Kilpatrick human being were thereby enrolled. It is the custom of grand fathers on such occasions to wonder what grandsons will do and what they will find in the years ahead. I am not so concerned with material things with space travel and new communications and miracles of Medicine and science. These will come. By 2026, when you Are my age you and Heather May be looking Forward matter of factly to reaching 97 and 100 respectively. In your late 20s, around the turn of the Century the two of you May be travelling around the world As casually As your Mother and father now drive from Williamsburg to Richmond. I wonder instead about the things that matter. What will you discover about the great families of Mankind the families identified by race and religion and nationality will they learn in your lifetime to live at peace with one another will you grow up Doug Las to a world of love and Charity and compassion a world in which human beings do not seek to Hurt or to kill or to enslave other families your Grandfather has read too much history and covered too Many wars. Your Grandfather gravely doubts that your world in these respects will be significantly better than this world has Ever been. It is altogether prob Able that the hatreds jealousies and passions of Mankind will still be around and you and Heather dwelling on an increasingly crowded planet May not be Able to do much about it. But you can try Douglas. You can try. That is All any of us can do in any age in any universe. We can try to live up to the Good and godly concepts of the family you have joined. You were born of love. As you grow older you will know Hurt and pain and frustration of course you will but you will know love also and you will love Many things. I Hope you will come to love this Church and this Community and these wooded Hills for such a love As Burke said is the first link in the series by which we proceed toward a love to our country and to Mankind. Grandfather c Washington Star Syndicate