A TERM TO REMEMBER

The multimillion-dollar Watergate industry seems to be winding down with increasingly dispensable footnotes, this latest by the (then) freshman Representative from Iowa's First Congressional District. Elected in 1972, Mezvinsky was to become one of 38 Representatives on the Judiciary Committee debating the five articles of impeachment. Throughout, he feels overwhelmed by the magnitude of his responsibilities and the ""terrible seriousness of what we were about."" On the day of the first roll call vote ""As I walked through the doorway I was both proud and scared. But I wouldn't have traded places with anybody."" Months of conflict with the White House and constant wrangling with the more obstreperous Republican Committee members preceded that day; the resolve of the Judiciary Committee and its Chairman, Peter Rodino, was only strengthened by the ploys from the President's men. Mezvinsky tries to reinject some of the original drama of the televised debates into this rerun and fails--despite quotes from such punchy speakers as Walter Flowers and Barbara Jordan. In counterpoint to the national drama, Mezvinsky reflects on his personal unhappiness over a collapsing marriage--his wife has just fried for divorce and he's miserable. Neither Rodino's struggles against divisive partisanship, nor Mezvinsky's own attempts to carry the article charging Nixon with tax fraud (as ""perhaps the one [article] that most citizens could understand and identify with"") can do much to spark up this lackluster account of one man's initiation into the House of Representatives at a moment of national crisis.