>> i mean haldeman and ehrlichman indeed. >> i listened to a lot of the tapes and haldeman and ehrlichman and the president seemed to be on the same page. the president wasn't going, oh, really, that was an interesting idea. he was right there with them. no question of parasite and host here. >> since you mentioned him, could you give us a word picture of james st. clair, since you were his partner later? >> jim came in, and, you know, even at that point, he was an old trial lawyer and my one abiding memory of him is i was presenting the case for the committee on an article based n the impoundment of funds. failure to spend funds that had been appropriated. i think a lot of them were clean air act. here is the arguments for impoundment and the arguments the other way. and bob mcclure from illinois, said are there any other possible defenses that the president should raise? in the thick of the fight over the documents and the supreme court and whether the president withheld documents. and i said, yes, based on case a, b, and c, i said very proudly, the president could stand upon the ground

i told ehrlichman that. they didn't want to hear that.n your house. he said, john, there's something putrid in your drinking water out there where you live and i said no, john, i said i'm just a realist. we got problems. on march 21st john dean walked into the oval office to give an assessment of what watergate was doing to his presidency. >> you don't know everything that i know and it is for you to make judgments that only you can make. >> and after that remark, his feet were solidly on the floor. i'm warning him. he has problems. this was not good news i was about to share, that there was a cancer on his presidency. >> we have a cancer close to the presidency that is growing. it's growing daily. he just absorbs that for a minute and thinks about it and as the conversation goes on and i say mr. president, i don't know where this will end. it's just going to keep going up. >> the senate investigation was closing in on the president. to distance himself from the cover up, nixon needed scapegoats. >> one of the most difficult decisions in

ehrlichman and several other aides were still awaiting trial and conviction on their indictments for conspiring in the broader coverup. now, luckily for john ehrlichman, in the end he got to serve his prison time concurrently for his two separate convictions, but on that day in july 1974, richard nixon may have needed a vacation, but he was doing his best to put a brave face on. he was doing his best to look like a president who was not engulfed in scandal and looming impeachment. in fact, just before he jetted off on his vacation. he gathered members of congress in the oval office and signed a major piece of legislation that would fundamentally change the way that washington spent money. >> at the white house today president nixon signed a new budget bill into law. the president described the new law as a major weapon in the fight against inflation, the most significant reform since congress began. the bill gives congress much more authority over the national budget than it ever has had before. the president, for example, no longer will be able to impound appropriated money without

but it was conversations between the president and haldeman and the president and ehrlichman and john dean had a bit part in some of them. i remember thinking everyone keeps their voice down in the oval office, you know. no screaming and ranting and raving. on the other hand, what's being said is pretty amazing. >> tell us about john -- john doerr. >> dream boat. dream boat. he was just sort of apple pie good, and, you know, i knew that he made a real effort to not socialize with any of his democratic friends in washington. he was a good friend of ethel kennedy. doerra saying, that john won't return my telephone calls. it is awful. one time, john took exception to the fact that i think it was i who had written a memo for mr. hutchinson of michigan, at the request of sam garrison. i think sam asked me to deliver it to mr. hutchinson. did not know i about this so i got caught in the middle on that. i was kind of in the middle since i was friendly with both sides. i often say i've had a lot of different jobs in law and politics, and i have been a house liberal in a conservative administr

john ehrlichman. and he has the title of special counsel because he is the lawyer. he stays for 10 months and -- digust.isc because he did not have enough access to nixon. and he would say, i wanted to discuss my issues directly with the president. ehrlichman and the others would say we have discussed it in this is the president's decision. and clark would say how do i know unless i heard it from the president? maybe the president did not hear my point of view, so maybe his decision as relayed by you is wrong. and that went down really well. after 10 months, he leaves. but he leaves with the credibility of having worked on the nixon white house staff for the previous 10 months, and he heads up the washington office register"s moines and becomes the dean of the washington-based investigative reporters. this was before woodward and bernstein. they were a glint in someone's mullenoff was big stuff. he has written a whole bunch of books, but two have to do with watergate. here's a picture of clark and nixon in the oval office. nixon has got his feet up on the desk. this