Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974 (1/2)
Impeachment Hearings: House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974 (1/2)
[00.41.05] Mr. JENNER. I will ask-the last, Mr. Fish, is quite clear and inherent in the duty to take care. The first that you mentioned is likewise included in the President's obligation to learn what is happening with-- least in the executive agencies, and the executive institutions. You will recall that there was a good deal of testimony with respect to the President's carefully screening the news summaries he received at his desk at 8:10 every morning when be was in Washington and they were delivered to him when he was in San Clemente and in Key Biscayne according to the testimony. And that he read those and he wrote notes on them, and those news reports necessarily, because they covered TV, the, print media, magazines, were necessarily distilled by experts that he had there would bring to him what was occurring day to day throughout the country and alert him to--alert him to things about -which he should inquire with respect to executive agencies and his staff as well. Mr. FISH. Can you think of anything else in addition to these four that would constitute the responsibility -to take care that the laws are faithfully executed? Mr. JENNER. The main one I think is ,in obligation on the part of the President and an expectation of the people with respect to the President, is that he would police his immediate subordinates, not only with respect to direct directions that he had given to them but his chief A, of staff and others as to whether those irections had been carried out. Mr. FISH. I thank you. Mr. DENNIS. Will the gentleman yield to me? Mr. FISH. Yes, I will be glad to. Mr. DENNIS. I thank my friend from New York for yielding. I simply want to comment first that I don't understand that a piece of conversation to the effect that things are going to change which was what happened on September 15 is in any sense of the word an attempt. If John Dean is concerned I think he would be in serious danger about an attempt but I don't think the President would. Second--- The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman from New York has expired. Mr. DENNIS. I thank you. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from California, Mr. Waldie, is recognized. Mr. WALDIE. Mr. Chairman, the past few days I think have been enormously important days for the Constitution of the United States. Whatever the ultimate result of these proceedings, whether the President be impeached or whether he be not impeached, the Constitution has been strengthened and it has peculiarly been strengthened by commencing the process of bringing into check an executive, a President who had abused his constitutionally limited powers to an extraordinary degree. Article II of these proposed articles of impeachment is in my view the heart of this process, By passage and adoption of this article, we not only tell this President we will no longer tolerate his personal excesses of power but indeed we tell any future President that the Constitution is a limiting document and that it particularly must limit Power where it is concentrated most heavily in the executive branch, the Presidency. Not many Presidents and too few Members of Congress I fear have understood this lesson. I personally believe that few Presidents have misunderstood it as grossly as this President, but in fact all Presidents have sought to grasp and accumulate power -,it the expense of the other institutions of government. I suppose it was inevitable that a, time would come when this constant accumulation of power would have to be checked and curbed and done so in a manner clearly understood, not only by the President in office at that particular moment in history but by Presidents yet to come. That duty falls first on this committee. We have begun to draw that line. We. have begun the, long overdue and the painful process of curbing the excesses of power in the executive branch. We -will forward that process, Mr. Chairman, significantly by adopting article II tonight. I yield back the balance of my time. [00.45.56]