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13 | Gorton Agonistes

B

econoKy g Rt wAs 12 yeARs oLd when it hit home that her father

was an increasingly influential, controversial politician. A seventh

grader rarely takes notice of the morning newspaper, but when

she saw the headline splashed across the front page of the Seattle Post-

Intelligencer on March 21, 1974, it was “burned in my brain.”^1

In Shadow of Impeachment

Gorton to Nixon: ‘Quit’

America was awash in Watergate. Nixon had fired Archibald Cox and

abolished the office of special prosecutor, which prompted Attorney

General Richardson and his deputy, William D. Ruckelshaus, to resign

in protest. Headline writers dubbed it “The Saturday Night Massacre.” A

month later, in a televised Q&A session at the AP Managing Editors’ Con-

vention, Nixon famously declared, “People have got to know whether or

not their President is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook!”^2 And on December

7, 1973, a date which will live in Watergate infamy, the White House said

it couldn’t explain an 18^1 ⁄ 2 -minute gap in one of the Oval Office tapes

subpoenaed by the Senate committee. Alexander Haig, Nixon’s Chief of

Staff, said one theory was that “some sinister force” erased the segment.^3

Gorton found it all profoundly troubling: Without legal authorization

or any admonition to protect constitutional rights, Nixon had authorized

formation of the “Plumbers” political espionage unit. Despite having “all

of the power of the federal government at his command,” the president

had ignored the mounting drumbeat of revelations about the 1972 break-

in attempt at Democratic National Headquarters, never bothering to

learn the truth. Further, Nixon withheld evidence from the Department

of Justice and Congress, urged the IRS to harass his enemies, solicited

illegal campaign contributions and countenanced, as Gorton put it, “the

two-time selection as vice president of a man who turned out to be a com-

mon extortionist.”^4