Word: eastland
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...James O. Eastland (D-Miss.). Eastland, a professional racist, has from his post atop the Senate's powerful Judiciary Committee opposed even the mildest measures for racial justice. He doubles as a gentleman farmer: his huge Mississippi plantations receive the Agriculture Department's highest annual acreage payments...
...agency and the Watergate investigation. But his testimony had deeply embarrassed several top Administration officials and disillusioned some of his supporters in Congress. Finally, at the White House's bidding, Attorney General Richard Kleindienst last week drove to the Capitol Hill office of Senator James O. Eastland, chairman of the committee, to sound out Gray's chances. Eastland told Kleindienst that he would make another try to get the confirmation passed, but that he saw no hope...
...following day, Eastland called his committee together on two hours' notice. Republican Senator Roman Hruska of Nebraska came prepared to spring the Administration's last gambit: a proposal to delay any decision on the nomination until the Senate completes its Watergate investigation, which might take a year or more and would have given Gray time to resign quietly in the interim. Gray's most powerful opponent on the committee, West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, headed Hruska off with parliamentary maneuvering. When it finally became obvious that Gray's confirmation would never get out of committee...
Last week Kleindienst overruled Gray, insisting that the FBI's Watergate files would be open only to the Judiciary Committee Chairman, Mississippi Democrat James Eastland, and the committee's ranking Republican, Nebraska's Roman Hruska. When Kleindienst ordered Gray not to answer any more questions about Watergate, Gray was forced into the humiliating position of refusing to respond to the Senators. "I respectfully decline to answer that question," he would say, his bass voice sometimes quavering as he sounded uncomfortably like someone taking the Fifth Amendment...
...lineup last week: For Gray?Republicans Marlow Cook, Hiram Fong, Edward Gurney, Roman Hruska, Hugh Scott, Strom Thurmond and Democrat James Eastland. Against Gray?Democrats Birch Bayh, Quentin Burdick, Robert Byrd, Sam Ervin, Philip Hart, Edward Kennedy and John Tunney. Undecided?Republican Charles Mathias and Democrat John McClelland...