Sen. George S. McGovern [D-S.D.] slipped quietly into Cambridge on November 4, one year to the week after losing every state but Massachusetts to President Nixon in the 1972 election. McGovern came to address an Institute of Politics seminar on November 5. While in Cambridge, he made no speeches, held no press conferences, attended no rallies.

It was the same week that Republican senators and conservative newspapers joined in the public outcry over corruption in Nixon's administration--the issue that McGovern tried unsuccessfully to mine throughout the campaign and that might have made him president if Watergate had broken open a year earlier.

Before McGovern's talk to the Institute seminar, reporters Dale S. Russakoff and Kevin A. Stafford interviewed him at the Crimson. The following are excerpts:

Q: How does it feel to have the country see Nixon your way--one year too late?

A: Well, as I've said, we peaked too late. But I don't think anybody can draw any joy out of what has happened to the country. It does vindicate the judgment that I offered free of charge a year ago--that this is the most corrupt administration in American history. I think few people would question that now. But that's the kind of judgment that you don't want vindicated. It's sad that at a time when the country has so many difficult problems confronting it that we have that kind of leadership.

Impeachment

Q: Given that you did charge during the campaign that the Nixon administration was the most corrupt in American history, and given everything that's been revealed during the Watergate investigations, can we assume that you support Nixon's resignation or his removal from office by impeachment?

A: I support it very vigorously. I not only support it, I predict it. We'll see in the next few months either a resignation or an impeachment.

Q: If he doesn't resign, do you think that the Congress will support impeachment?

A: Yes, I do.

Q: We hear a lot about senators' public positions on resignation or impeachment, but we have very little understanding of the mood of the Senate. Is there anything you can tell us about the power blocs, and the infighting, the outside influences?

A: The Senate is understandably deferring to the House on impeachment because it's a House prerogative. My understanding is that the sentiment for impeachment is building all the time. Whether it has reached a majority point now, I can't say. No one will know until the roll is called or until the House Judiciary Committee completes its investigation. But I'm rather strongly of the view that we'll either see a resignation in the near future or else impeachment will go forward.

Q: Many people say that there's a sentiment for impeachment but the votes just won't be there. Do you disagree with that?

A: I disagree with that.

Q: What about your Republican colleagues? How would you assess their mood? Are they anguished, embittered?