Many a politician wishes there were a law to burn old records.
--Will Rogers
“I’ve heard the President has a new favorite flavor of ice cream: ImPEACHment.
--Johnny Carson
Jack Brooks hadn’t held much regard for Peter Rodino over the past year. The combative ex-Marine thought the Judiciary Chairman had gone soft in his older age. Rodino was nearing 65, while Brooks was a chipper 52, and through most of 1973, Brooks had driven the pace of impeachment inside the caucus. Rodino had not sprung into action until after the Saturday Night Massacre, when he was finally convinced the President had descended into full unlawfulness. Brooks had receded to the background over the past few months, but he had not stopped his work—drafting articles of impeachment that were clear and precise, nailing down the conduct of Richard Nixon in such a way that it would be extremely difficult for the ten to fifteen Republicans that would be needed for a Senate conviction. The fact that the Judiciary Committee was convening on short notice on a Friday afternoon made Brooks think that he was about to get a reason for an article of impeachment, perhaps the defining article.
As the members of the committee filed into Judiciary’s main hearing room in 2141 Rayburn, John Doar was seated at the witness table, a position both unusual and uncomfortable for the attorney. Attorneys rarely are called to testify, and when they do, it is typically when they are implicated in a crime themselves. Doar wasn’t a criminal, but on balance, he’d still rather be the one asking questions instead of answering them. The chairman gaveled the closed session to order, and asked Doar if he was ready to proceed. The special counsel affirmed he was, and Rodino directed him to explain what he had brought with him. Every member had been told to bring their transcript binders for the days in question, which alerted them to the content, if not the substance, of what was going to happen. Brooks knew pretty quickly there was something damning, for his part, and he started skimming the June 23rd transcript first while handing the 20th to his chief of staff before they came down. The Texas congressman kept reading as they walked to the committee hearing room, and found the killer conversation. The other members had wondered why Brooks was so happy to be in a special session on a Friday afternoon, but they knew right away, because he cut in before Doar got a word out of his mouth.
“Mr. Chairman, excuse me, but I think I know why we’re here and why Mr. Doar is here, and that’s because he’s found a transcript that contains information that proves the President is neck deep in Watergate. In fact, I think if everyone turns to page four of the second tape from June 23rd, 1972, you’ll see pretty quickly why there’s a Friday afternoon special closed hearing,” Brooks said. Everyone’s head swiveled towards Brooks as he read off the “chapter and verse,” while Doar stared at Brooks in disbelief.
How did you figure it out that fast? Most everyone on the committee was a lawyer, and other than a few muttered “holy shits,” the silence was overwhelming. As heads began popping up, Brooks was wearing a bigger grin than he’d walked in with. “So, Mr. Doar, if you were prosecuting still, would this transcript be good enough for a conviction on charges of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice?”
“Congressman, I can’t imagine any jury in the country reading this as anything but an effort to stop a lawful investigation of a crime. You folks all know what my job was in the Kennedy Administration. This is a gross abuse of power. Even when all those rumors went around that the Mob had helped Jack win the election by messing with votes in Chicago, never once did he call Bobby up and say, “Now, listen, Bobby, if you keep investigating Hoffa and Giancana, it’s going to destroy my presidency.” All of us at Justice went full-tilt after the corruption of the Teamsters and the mob bosses behind it, even though we could at any time have come across something that turned a rumor into fact. That’s how a president is supposed to act. Instead, the President chose to almost immediately try to get the CIA to wave off the FBI, and we already heard testimony last year about how the acting director flat-out destroyed evidence in this case. Beyond that, though, there’s one more piece to this situation. Leon Jaworski came to see the chairman prior to this hearing. He informed the chairman and myself that the President admitted to having destroyed the subpoenaed tape from June 20th around the time of the Cox subpoena, and Jaworski is willing to testify to this if necessary. I do not have to tell you how grave an act that is. You can see what is discussed on this June 23rd tape, so the tape of June 20th was likely even more explicit in its evidence of obstruction. With all this evidence in front of you, if you don’t impeach, Congress might as well all go home and let this country become a monarchy,” Doar said.
Normally, Nixon’s defenders would’ve spoken up at this point, as they had for months now, but the glum looks on their faces showed that they knew it was a lost cause. Brooks pulled a sheet of paper out from his briefcase, asking to make a motion. Rodino approved the request. The ex-Marine, reading slowly in the command voice of the Marine colonel he had been up until two years ago, declared the words that would ring around the world that night.
“While serving in his capacity as President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon did, on June 23rd, 1972, conspire with his chief of staff H.R. Haldeman to obstruct the investigation of the June 17th, 1972 burglary and wiretapping attempt at the Democratic National Committee; and that in order to obstruct the investigation, the President did abuse the power of his office to protect his associates from the legal consequences of having ordered the burglary of the Democratic National Committee. The President also, at some time during October 1973, destroyed an audiotape that was under subpoena by the office of special counsel. Furthermore, presidential aides and Cabinet officials, with the knowledge of the President, willfully and illegally obstructed the prosecution of the Watergate burglars. This obstruction was furthered by the paying of bribes to defendants in return for silence, and by the actions of White House Counsel John W. Dean and acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, L. Patrick Gray, both of whom destroyed evidence to protect the President.
Such actions carry the gravest import to the preservation of this nation of laws, and strike at the very heart of the democratic republic. The sanctity of our democratic processes and of our status as a nation of laws, not men, cannot survive such an assault unchallenged. Therefore, on this day, April 5th, 1974, pursuant to its power delegated by Article I of the United States Constitution, the House of Representatives declares the following:
RESOLVED, That Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanours, and that this article of impeachment is to be exhibited to the Senate.”
Rodino solemnly intoned, “The motion has been presented to the committee, and I second it. May the Clerk please call the roll.” Every single Democrat voted yes, although some, like Walter Flowers, seemed overcome by the severity of the event and their voices quavered as they spoke their “Aye.” The real surprises came on the Republican side. Eight Republicans bolted, just under half of their party’s membership of the committee. Yes votes came from Hamilton Fish, William Cohen, Lawrence Hogan, Caldwell Butler, Robert McClory, Tom Railsback, Carlos Moorhead (representing part of an increasingly liberal Los Angeles County), and, shockingly, Charles Wiggins. The wall of party support around the President was cracking apart, with Wiggins’ vote, tallied near the very end, causing heads on both sides of the party divide to whiplash. When the tally was complete, Rodino banged his gavel. “The article of impeachment is passed, and shall be transmitted to the Speaker for scheduling of the full House vote. This hearing is adjourned.”
Members filed out, greeted by an overwhelming amount of reporters. Most of them refused to comment. Barbara Jordan simply said in a mournful tone, “This is a sad day for our republic,” and walked away. Rodino was mobbed by the press, and he would only say that the Speaker would be making a statement later today and he was not at liberty to comment until that time. While the focus was on the Judiciary chair, one of the committee aides was headed through back hallways to make his way to the Speaker’s office to present the impeachment article. In this case, the aide didn’t go to the Capitol Building, where the media had stakeouts in front of the Speaker’s office, but rather his constituent office, which was a short walk from the hearing room inside the Rayburn Building. Within a few minutes, the aide presented the signed document to the Speaker and departed. Carl Albert sat behind his desk, reading and re-reading the document. Impeachment. It had only happened to one president in nearly two hundred years of self-government. With the committee passing this bill, there had to be a vote now in the full House, which would almost certainly pass.
Either this will unify the nation behind our democratic principles or totally tear us apart, and the odds are 6-5 and pick ‘em. God help us all.
The Speaker picked up his phone. He had two calls to make: one to Mansfield to let him know the balloon had gone up, and the other to his press secretary to get the media prepped for a conference in the press room of the Rayburn building. He called his press aide first, since that was the easier of the two. The call with the Senate Majority Leader brought a bit of surprise with it. Mansfield couldn’t believe that it had happened so fast after the arrival of the transcripts, and Albert didn’t have a good answer, just that Doar had found something, took it to Rodino, and the committee vote was bipartisan. Mansfield’s ears perked up at that last part. He would have to wrangle the votes, get some Republicans to move over the party line, and had been worried for months about it.
There ain’t nothing worse that could happen than an acquittal after we went through the process of impeaching Nixon. The leftist pitchforks would be out in a hurry, ready to skewer us all. If Rodino had eight yes votes out of the committee from the GOP, it must be awful for Nixon. The courtly Montanan thanked his House counterpart for the call and hung up. Albert took a deep breath, rose from his desk, and began the trek to the press area. It was time to go face the cameras and tell them what happened. He’d spend the weekend going over the calendar with O’Neill and figure out when to schedule the vote. Regular order couldn’t just stop, not with budget bills and Vietnam issues and all sorts of stuff in the lineup.
The Speaker pulled the door open to the press room. In his familiar Okie twang, he began speaking towards the cameras, unaware that it was going live on the networks thanks to a pool feed agreement. “Good evening. A short time ago, I received a communication from the House Judiciary Committee which informed me that they had held a vote on an article of impeachment. That article passed the committee 29-9, and so it is my sol—my sad duty to announce that the House of Representatives will be voting on impeachment as a collective body before the end of the month. If the vote is yes, then the Senate will hold the trial of the President. I’ve already called Senate Majority Leader Mansfield so he can begin preparations as necessary, and he will be in touch with Minority Leader Scott so we can move forward in a unified manner, keeping with the letter and spirit of the Constitution regarding this serious manner. I have to say, I’m terribly sorry it has come to this, but we…[here the Speaker’s voice shook as he stifled the urge to cry] will do our duty as representatives of these several states, and hope that we act with the dignity and patriotism that the Founders would have wished for. Thank you all very much for coming today.”
Albert walked away without taking a question. The White House correspondents, glued to the television in their press area inside the West Wing, did a
volte-face towards Ron Ziegler’s office, only to find the door locked. Ziegler was hiding inside, having no forewarning whatsoever that his boss’s political life had lurched suddenly towards the cliff, and no desire to face the horde without instructions. The President was in Key Biscayne with Gerald Warren, the deputy press secretary, in tow, and only a few poolers had made the trip, as most suspected, rightly so, that the action would be in D.C. It had happened a lot quicker than anyone expected, leaving both the media and the White House scrambling. One question ricocheted around America, “What would the President do about this and when would he do it?”