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Show Egg on their faces One can almost hear the ticking of the bomb's fuse, but one doesn't know when the thing will go off. That's the current state of the Watergate affair. New revelations keep popping up, new connections between the Nixon campaign (CRP) ano I a vast network of political espionage and sabotage are established. The timer approaches zero. The latest disclosure came yesterday from the Washington Post, which received its information from federal investigators and grand jury testimony. The Post reports that H. R. Haldeman, the White House Chief of Staff and a 16-year Nixon employee, was one of those authorized to make payments from the secret $700,000 CRP special fund -the fund from which the Watergate tappers, among others, were paid. Others with access to the fund included former Attorney General John Mitchell and former Secretary of Commerce Maurice Stans. This means, if true, that a government worker and a Presidential confidante was among those involved in the spying and the Watergate caper. This also means that the President was wrong when he asserted that no Administration official was implicated in the Democratic National Committee break-in; it was, he said last summer, a bungled "third-rate burglary attempt. Too bad the whole mess won't get cleared up in the near future-certainly future-certainly before Election Day. There are too many political overtones, there is too much at stake for everyone concerned, to make a quick resolution possible. Both sides deserve a public airing into the charges and counter-charges. So far the impact of all this on public opinion has been negligible. Mostly it has reinforced the beliefs of Democrats and been disbelieved by Republicans, with Independents taking a blase "well-what-dc-you-expect-from-politicians-anyway" attitude toward the whole matter. But the Watergate-political-espionage-secret campaign funds issue transcends tran-scends the partisan personalities involved and the problem of who wins on November 7. It raises questions about the entire condition of our political system, symbolizing in sharp relief the travesty of democracy we now practice. Professional poll-taker Lou Harris reports that the Watergate caper is beginning to impinge on the consciousness of the American electorate. When full awareness comes, whenever it comes, the impact is bound to be large. The air needs to be cleared, regardless of Tightness of the specific charges and counter-charges. And so the politicians walk on eggshells waiting, hoping or fearing the outcome. Some of them are likely to have the egg on their faces before long. |