Rep. Drinan Sees Watergate Turmoil As Toughest Crisis

Rep. Robert F. Drinan (D-Mass.), told a Harvard Law School Forum audience last night that "it's not exaggerating to say we now have the most serious crisis in the 200-year history of this country."

Showing the 120 people gathered at the Ames Courtroom an "Impeach Nixon" button pinned to his priest's vestment, Drinan said, "The authority of the president is eroding every single day. Events are becoming more and more unbelievable. One of my constituents wrote me that she believes Bebe Rebozo is running the country."

Drinan, who filed the first impeachment bill in the House on July 31, declared, "The fault lies with the people. They simply don't want to get involved in politics."

Making an analogy with the passivity of the Catholic Church while six million Jews were killed in Germany, Drinan said, "If you want something to happen, you can make it happen. The one thing that can allow the situation to end in a mo ass of failure by the people to act is your silence."

As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, which will hold confirmation hearings on the nomination of Gerald R. Ford for vice president, Drinan said that he had 40 questions he wanted to ask Ford. Foremost of these, he continued, was whether or not Ford was aware of the 1970 secret bombing in Cambodia.

The congressman said that he wouldn't hesitate to vote against Ford simply because "he's too far to the right."

Drinan, who is the first Catholic priest ever to be elected to Congress, lamented the apathy that is presently sweeping the country. Alluding to the student activists of the late '60s, he said, "Where, where, where are those students today?"

The congressman said that he wouldn't hesitate to vote against Ford simply because "he's too far to the right." In the end, he explained, "the only test is to vote how you want to vote."

The appointment of a special prosecutor by the president did not relieve Congress of establishing an office that would be truly independent, Drinan said. "There's enough dirt for two prosecutors," he told his audience.