[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, July - September, 1974] Page: 94 of 236
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Sunday, July 28, 1974
A HeroAnd a Goat
By Lynn Rosellini
Newsday Washington Bureau
Washington-When it was over last night, they
flocked around Peter Rodino.
First came the congressmen, offering to shake Ro-
dino's hand, patting him on the back, smiling.
Then cane the reporters. Was the chairman glad
it was over? How did he feel? What would he do now??
But Robert McClory stood alone.
McClory is the No. 2 Republican on the House
Judiciary Committee, but no Republicans came near
him last night. He had sided with Democrats on two
impeachment articles, but no Democrats offered to
shake his hand.
At 11:08 last night, the committee completed its
impeachment proceedings. "The committee stands ad-
journed until further call by the chairman," Rodino
announced. McClory stood up, smiling expectantly.
But when committee members flocked around Rodino
instead, the Illinois Republican slipped quietly out a
side door and took an elevator to his darkened office.
It had been a lonely day. Shortly after 11 AM,
he had introduced in committee an article of im-
peachment against his party's chief. McClory's ar-
ticle, citing Nixon's failure to respond to subpenas
issued by the committee, passed by a vote of 21-17.
But only one other Republican, Lawrence J. Ho-
gan of Maryland, joined McClory in voting for the
article. (He had expected at least two more GOP
votes.) And all afternoon, McClory later recalled,
other Republicans shunned him.
Later in the day, when McClory strode onto the
House floor for a roll-call vote and greeted several
GOP colleagues, they ignored him. Other Republicans
turned away.
In the committee room, it was the same. McClory
offered to work with his GOP colleagues on draftingAP Photo
Rodino, left, and McClory yesterday
a minority committee report. "I asked if I could work
on it with them on Article One," he recalled sadly.
"They told me, 'Go write your own.'"
A total of seven committee Republicans have voted
for impeachment articles during the past week. But
McClory was the only one to sponsor an article. "I
don't suppose anyone will ever forget how we vote on
impeachment," he said.
For Rodino, it had been a different kind of day.
After almost nine months, his committee was finally
bringing its impeachment inquiry to a close. He was
relieved, he said later. And tired.
In the beginning, there had been speculation that
after 26 relatively undistinguished years in the House,
Rodino was perhaps unequal to the awesome task of
presiding over an impeachment investigation. But,
working patiently behind the scenes, in private meet-ings and on the telephone, he had orchestrated the
committee's bipartisan strategy. The results: all the
committee's Democrats, including three from the South,
plus seven Republicans voted for the impeachment of
a Republican President.
But at 6:30 PM, two hours before his committee
began its final impeachment deliberations, Rodino's
attention was on less weighty matters.
"Shish kabob?" he was saying to his secretary.
"No, I don't want shish kabob."
"How about hamburger?" the secretary suggested.
"No, I'm tired of hamburger. I had tuna fish for
lunch."
"Tuna fish?" several staffers said incredulously.
"It was good," replied Rodino with a shrug.
The chairman finally settled on steak. His secre-
tary called ahead to Mike Palm's Restaurant on Capi-
tol Hill. Could they have dinner waiting for the chair-
man? When Rodino stepped out of the car at the
restaurant two committee members-Hogan and Rep.
Carlos Moorhead-were seated inside at separate ta-
bles, waiting for their dinner. When Rodino left the
restaurant, Hogan and Moorhead were still waiting.
Shortly after 8:30, Rodino gaveled his committee to
order. Then he leaned back in his black leather chair
to listen. As usual, his role was that of moderator.
"The gentleman from Michigan has 15 minutes re-
maining," he would say. Or, "The gentleman from
Iowa is advised that he has consumed 291/2 minutes of
his 60 minutes."
Afterward, he told reporters that he planned to
get some sleep, "'more than the four hours I've been
getting." He gathered up his notes, penciled with
members' names. Surrounded by several staff mem-
bers and his two bodyguards, Rodino took an elevator
up to his office in the House Office Building.
Inside the office, more staff members and several
reporters greeted him. Rodino smiled and chatted.
"I wouldn't want to go through it again," he said.
"I've only got one lifetime."
Down another marble corridor on the same floor,
McClory, accompanied only by his wife, Doris, had
approached his office door. It was locked. He unlocked
the door, switched on the lights and seated himself
in the empty room.
"I wouldn't have done anything different," he said,
staring down at his desk. "I have no regrets." He re-
peated it three times.Thursday, July 25, 1974
Tom Railsback's Agonizing DilemmaBy Lynn Rosellini
Newsday Washington Bureau
Washington-One morning about a
year ago, Rep. Tom Railsback's daugh-
ter Maggie, 11, didn't show up for
school in Moline, Ill.
When Maggie didn't come home at
lunchtime, Mrs. Railsback telephoned
Washington for her husband, who noti-
fied police and the FBI. Shortly after 6
PM, the Illinois Republican received a
call in his office from the President.
"Tom, I hear that Maggie's been lost,"
Railsback recalls Nixon telling him.
"What can I do'?"
Maggie was found-she had been
reading a book in the woods near the
Railsback home-but her father never
forgot the President's call. Now, with
the House Judiciary Committee about
to hold its first impeachment vote, the
memory nags at him.
"I'm almost being asked to impeach
a friend," Railsback said recently,
shaking his head. "Someone who has
never done anything against me but
only helped me."
It is only one of the pressures on
Tom Railsback. For Railsback, the de-
cision on whether Richard Nixon
should be impeached is an exquisite
agony, one with which he has lived
with increasing tension for the last six
months. Now, he must evaluate for the
final time all the hours of testimony,
all the millions of words, all the argu-
ments.
And he must weigh them against:
N * Carroll County GOP chairman
Bill. Linker's threat to support a con-servative primary candidate against
him in 1976.
* Recent meetings in Rock Island of
angry United Auto Workers, shouting
for impeachment.
* Recent meetings in Carthage and
Moline of angry GOP workers, shout-
ing against impeachment.
* The softspoken urgings of Repub-
lican congressional colleagues to sup-
port Nixon.
* A personal feeling for a President
who calls him "Tom" and once cam-
paigned for him in his district.
Thomas F. Railsback: 42; home,
Moline, Ill.; first elected in 1966; mod-
e r a t e Republican; father of four
daughters; regarded as a bright young
GOP hopeful; dissents occasionally
from traditional party line.
Thomas F. Railsback; an impeach-
ment "undecided," a "swing vote," a
"man in the middle." On the House
Judiciary Committee, Railsback is one
of a handful of Republicans who are
considered possible votes for impeach-
ment. Their votes are crucial, since
they would lend the bipartisan support
that can be expected to ensure a pro-
impeachment vote on the House Floor.
Railsback sees several "areas of
presidential vulnerability" in the, im-
peachment evidence, including the
Watergate cover-up and misuse of fed-
eral agencies. He has told his constitu-
ents that he will study the evidence
and "vote my conscience." "I've got to
live with my conscience," he said.
Last night, as the Judiciary Commit-
tee began its debate on articles of im-
peachment, Railsback gave one of the
more emotional speeches. I'm con-corned about the President's actions
. .," he said. "I wish the President
could do something to absolve him-
self." Railsback said he was most con-
cerned about what he called Nixon's
abuse of power, specifically the orders
that went out from the White House to
have the Internal Revenue Service
audit tax returns of persons on the
"enemies list."
Railsback's approach to impeach-
ment doesn't sit well with some
conservative Republicans back in his
district. At a meeting of county GOP
chairman at the Stardust Motel in Mo-
line earlier this month, a state legisla-
tor drew Railsback aside. "Tom," he
said in hushed tones, "down in Spring-
field some of the guys are asking,
'What's happened to Tom Railsback?'"
They apparently are asking the
same question out in Carroll County,
where the farmers raise cattle and corn
and vote conservatively. "If you im-
peach this President, it will set this na-
tion back 100 years," said county GOP
leader Linker, a Chadwick farmer.
There is talk now in Carroll and Han-
cock Counties and in other rural areas
of putting up a conservative Republi-
can to challenge Railsback in 1976- -if
he votes for impeachment. "Good Re-
publicans are like elephants," Linker
said. "They never forget."
In the Rock Island-Moline metro-
politan area, there is a different kind
of pressure. The liberal blue-collar vot-
ers who work at the huge farm ma-
chinery factories were pushing for im-
peachment as early as January.
"The President is nothing but ad a m n crook," one Union official
shouted at Railsback at a meeting of
UAW local 1304 in East Moline. Back
then, and most of the 100-member au-
dience seemed to agree with him.
The UAW endorsed Railsback in his
last election, when he ran unopposed.
But although no official endorsement
has been made yet this year, Rails-
back's Democratic opponent, who fa-
vors impeachment, is said to be mak-
ing inroads into his union strength.
UAW endorsement is considered ex-
tremely helpful to a candidate in a dis-
trict which numbers 20,000 union
members. Will Railsback get it? "What
happens," a union spokesman declared
flatly. "largely hinges on his vote on
the Judiciary Committee."
But Railsback is not waiting for the
committee vote to begin his peace-
keeping. On weekends during the past
spring, he spoke, at his request, at
meetings of union locals in Rock Is-
land and Moline to explain his indeci-
sion on impeachment. And almost ev-
ery weekend for two months, he has
met with GOP precinct committeemen
and county chairmen to do the same.
Railsback told them the same thing
that he has replied to the approxi-
mately 30 constituents who write him
daily (60 per cent of them against im-
peachment): "I have made no decision
to vote for or against impeachment
Railsback has not told the White
House anything. No one has asked, he
said. "If I thought the administration
was trying to pressure me in any way,
it would work the other way," he says.
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[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, July - September, 1974], book, 1974; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616583/m1/94/: accessed May 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Southern University.