Facing Impeachment

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES should immediately form a special committee to investigate the operations of the Executive branch. The committee should work closely with the Senate's Ervin subcommittee, and should concentrate chiefly on the House's responsibility arising from the Watergate scandal. It should also treat the broader question of whether the Executive's attempts to continue the Cambodian bombing and impound appropriated funds are constitutional.

One overriding responsibility compels the House to begin such an investigation, and that is its constitutional role in the process of impeachment. To call upon the House to impeach President Nixon now would clearly be premature, but the House would be tardy in fulfilling its obligations if it did not begin considering that possibility. That 50 Congressional requests have been filed with the Library of Congress for information about impeachment indicates that the procedure is being widely considered. Such consideration ought to take an organized form -- a committee sanctioned by the House.

The developments of the Watergate crisis have shown an intolerable pattern of behavior in American government that goes far beyond campaign law violations. The Watergate and Vesco grand juries have dealt with partisan corruption, the Ellsberg case and arrogant administration attitude toward Cambodian bombing have revealed an equally intolerable abuse of public office.

Nixon's entire presidency is now coming under scrutiny and it is appearing in a light clearly unbearable to most Americans. The Ervin subcommittee should help probe the corruption's extent, but what is uncovered may require a radical remedy, and the House of Representatives ought to be formally exploring the possibility events may turn into a necessity.