Word: ervin
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...Congress does not like that situation, Kleindienst added, it can always "cut off our funds, abolish most of what we can do or impeach the President." But, asked North Carolina Democrat Sam Ervin, how could the President be impeached if no one in the Executive Branch could be compelled to testify or supply evidence in the impeachment proceedings? Answered Kleindienst, in an amazing interpretation of proper legal procedure: "You don't need facts to impeach a President...
...Ervin has exposed the widespread surveillance of antiwar groups, black militants and even Congressmen and Senators by the U.S. Army. Through committee hearings, he has attacked the compilation by various Government agencies of a wide range of personal computerized data on citizens. He has denounced the Nixon Administration's crime bill for Washington, D.C., which permits jailing people who are considered dangerous but have not been convicted of any crime, as "a blueprint for a police state...
Despite his blunt language when aroused, Ervin is a compassionate man who has conducted his many committee hearings with courtesy and respect for witnesses. The transcripts are replete with phrases like "I am very much impressed by your statement" or "I want to congratulate you on the very lucid manner in which you stated your views." That is partly why Ervin seems to be the ideal Senator to hold those potentially volatile hearings on the many ramifications of Watergate...
That reputation for fairness was tarnished two weeks ago, when Ervin was called away to attend the funeral of his youngest brother. In his absence, the investigation almost got out of hand. One of the convicted Watergate wiretappers, James W. McCord Jr., began making sensational allegations of White House involvement. He talked to the committee's staff investigator, Samuel Dash, 48, and to the committee itself. Dash, trying to apply pressure on the six other convicted conspirators to also talk, unwisely called a press conference to reveal that McCord had "promised to tell everything he knows...
...found that an apt story is worth an hour of argument," says North Carolina's Sam Ervin. "A story that fits a point that you're trying to make sort of tends to arouse your audience, to get their attention if you're about to lose it. And a good story is a good way to relieve tension." Thus Ervin sums up his liberal use of hill-country anecdotes and other witticisms to make points in congressional debate or simply to amuse his friends. A sampling of the Senator's folksy stories on a variety...