Inside Politics

Tipsy Nixon?

Five days into the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, with the superpowers on the brink of confrontation, President Nixon was too drunk to discuss the crisis with the British prime minister, according to newly released transcripts of tape recordings.

Henry Kissinger’s assessment of the president’s condition on the night of Oct. 11, 1973, is part of more than 20,000 pages of transcripts of Mr. Kissinger’s phone calls as the president’s national security adviser and secretary of state — records whose privacy he had guarded for three decades. The National Archives released them yesterday.

In October 1973, U.S.-Soviet tensions were peaking over the Arab-Israeli war, and British Prime Minister Edward Heath’s office called the White House just before 8 p.m. to ask to speak with the president.

“Can we tell them no?” Mr. Kissinger asked his assistant, Brent Scowcroft, who had told him of the urgent request. “When I talked to the president, he was loaded.”

Mr. Scowcroft replied: “We could tell him the president is not available and perhaps he can call you.”

Mr. Kissinger said Mr. Nixon would be available in the morning.

Communion rail

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver yesterday became the latest Catholic bishop to enter the debate over Catholic politicians and Communion, saying that anyone who strays from the teachings of the church should refrain from receiving the Eucharist.

At the same time, he said that denying Communion to any Catholic is a “very grave matter,” in apparent contrast with bishops who have said they would deny the Eucharist to specific candidates or rebuked Catholic voters who back candidates who deviate from church teachings.

“Denying anyone Communion is a very grave matter. It should be reserved for extraordinary cases of public scandal,” Archbishop Chaput said in yesterday’s column in the Denver Catholic Register.

“But the Church always expects Catholics who are living in serious sin or who deny the teachings of the Church — whether they’re highly visible officials or anonymous parishioners — to have the integrity to respect both the Eucharist and the faithful, and to refrain from receiving Communion,” he said.

Many Catholics had been waiting for the archbishop’s comments after Bishop Michael Sheridan, who heads the adjacent Colorado Springs Diocese, drew national attention by saying two weeks ago that Catholic voters shouldn’t receive Communion if they support candidates who disagree with the church on issues such as abortion, euthanasia, stem-cell research and homosexual “marriage.”

Archbishop Chaput didn’t mention Bishop Sheridan directly in his column. Denver Archdiocese spokesman Sergio Gutierrez said his boss “respects Bishop Sheridan, he admires the clarity of his pastoral letter, and he admires his courage.”

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