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sunday, July 28, i i4
6 RepublicansVote to Impeach
First article.
Obstruction
Of justice
By Myron S. Waldman
and Lynn Rosellini
Newsday Washington Bureau
Washington-The House Judiciary
Committee recommended last night by
a vote of 27 to 11 that Richard M.
Nixon be impeached for obstructing
justice and violating his constitutional
oath.
The time of judgment, the first such
in more than a century, came at 7:03
PM. It came in a room so quiet that
the only things audible were the clicks
of photographer's cameras and the soft
voices of the members as they re-
sponded.
Six of the committee's 17 Republi-
cans joined all 21 Democrats in voting
to recommend impeachment. They are
Hamilton Fish of Poughkeepsie, Wil-
liam Cohen of Maine, Tom Railsback
of Illinois, Lawrence Hogan of Mary-
land, M. Caldwell Butler of Virginia
and Harold Froehlich of Wisconsin.
At 6:50 PM, the last objection to the
nine charges contained in Article I of
the two-count bill of impeachment was
defeated by a vote of 23 to 15. "The
question is-" Chairman Peter Rodino
(D-N.J.) began. Rep. Jack Brooks (D-
Texas) interrupted: "I move the pre-
vious question on the Sarbanes substi-
tute as amended."
Rep. Walter Flowers (D-Ala.), the
conservative whose district is pro
"and who had raised the objec-
tions to eight of the nine charges, m-
terrupted in his turn. "I want to be
guided by the fact in my own con-
science," Flowers said quietly. "It is my
personal decision what I must do."
Speaking of his constituents, Flowers
said: "I have enough- pain for them
and me."
At 6:57 P.M., Flowers was done. Ro-
dino declared: "The question is before
us. The question occurs on what is of-
fered- by the gentleman from Mary-
land," he said, referring to the article
offered Friday by Paul Sarbanes, a lit-
tle-known Democrat on the committee.
The voice vote was challenged and the
role call result was 27 to 11. After that,
there was immediately a second pro
forma vote on the original resolution
as amended by Sarbanes. The result
was the same.
The committee still must deliberate
the passage of at least one other articleUPI Photo
Clerk calls the roll for vote on impeachment Article Iof impeachment which was presented
to it last week. This article is now un-
dergoing extensive revision by at least
two pro-impeachment blocks of con-
gressmen in the committee.
The article of impeachment ap-
proved by the committee lists nine spe-
cific charges against the President, all
related to the accusation that he
"engaged personally and through his
close subordinates and agents in a
course of conduct or plan" to cover up
the scandal of the break-in two years
ago of Democratic headquarters at
Watergate.
The .econd article, which will be de-
bated tomorrow, charges that the Pres-
ident "has abused the powers vested in
hir." It contains eight specific accusa-
tions and is a catch-all article, covering
everything from the establishment and
actions of the White House
"plumbers" unit to the failure of the
President to comply with the commit-
tee's subpoenas.
It contains provisions that are far
more controversial than the article ap-
proved last night. But Rep. James
Mann (D-S.C.), a conservative who
has the ear of both liberal Democrats
a n d pro-impeachment Republicans,
has rewritten the article after confer-
ring with both groups. It has not yet
been decided who will introduce the
new version to the Committee.
Last night's decision by the House
Judiciary Committee marked the first
time that a committee of Congress has
recommended the impeachment of a
president since February 22, 186,when articles of impeachment were
brought against Andrew Johnson.
It was a decision that could have
been delayed by the President's Re-
publican loyalists on the committee,
but it was a decision that was inevita-
ble. The loyalists knew it. Although'
they had battled all day Friday to
demonstrate their belief in the Presi-
dent's innocence, they decided yester-
day to drop the idea of a filibuster.
"I really thought it would be fruit-
less," said Rep. Charles Wiggins (R-
Calif.), a leading Nixon supporter. "It
isn't going to do anything in commit-
tee."
Rep. Charles Sandman (R-N.J.)
Nixon's most outspoken partisan, and
the man who introduced nine amend-
ments to strike every one of the nine
charges of Article I of the impeach-
ment bill, also surrendered.
"There's no way the outcome of
this vote will be changed by debate,"
Sandman conceded. "There will be no
objections from me. There will be no
motions from me. There will be no mo-
tions to strike from me."
But neither the Nixon loyalists nor
those seeking to impeach had reckoned
on Flowers. Representing one of the
most pro-Nixon districts in the nation,
Flowers is nevertheless a virtually cer-
tain impeachment vote.
But he wants his constituents to
know why he will be voting as he will.
And he has concluded that the best
way to tell them is to offer motions to
strike each sub-paragraph listing acharge, so that the debate can reveal
the specifics behind every accusation
in the bill. During the afternoon re-
oess, however, he agreed to limit the
debate to 20 minutes on each of the
charges.
Before Flowers forced the committee
into continuing the debate over the
facts of the case, the amendments were
offered, supposedly to make it easier to
prove the case against the President.
Hogan of Maryland, once one of the
President's strongest supporters on the
committee and then the first Republi-
can openly to declare for impeach-
ment, offered the first.
His amendment, approved by a
voice vote, charged the President not
only with making but "causing to be
made" false or misleading statements
to investigators. This means that the
President himself would not have to be
proven guilty of making such state-
ments himself in order to be im-
peached but only of having presuaded
others to make such statements.
And an amendment by Railsback of
Illinois substituted the phrase "a
course of conduct or plan" for the
word "policy" in describing the way
Nixon allegedly covered up "unlawful
entry" and "other unlawful covert ac-
tivities."
"ItI's hard to prove 'policy' for acts
o n specific dates," Railsback ex-
plained. On the other hand, he added,
it is easier to prove "a course of con-
duct" or a "plan" on specific dates.
Wiggins said afterwards that he was
happy about approval of Railsback's
amendment. "It is much more difficult
to prove a charge against the Presi-
dent," Wiggins said. "Now you've got
to show the President was involved for
the purposes of obstructing justice."
Wiggins and the other Republicans
loyal to the President acted together in
battling the impeachment process
Friday and yielded together yesterday.
The question remained: had Wiggins
or any other loyalists been in touch
with James St. Clair, the President's
impeachment lawyer, or any other
White House officials, to confer on
strategy?
Wiggins just grinned and admitted
speaking to one of the two White
House lawyers who sit in the commit-
tee's hearing room as observers. "I
have talked with him," Wiggins said,
adding that he did not know the man's
name. "He's come up to me at various
times during the breaks, he says,
'What about this argument? What
about that argument?' "
Does Wiggins take the White House
lawyer's advice? The congressman
laughed. "I give him advice," he an-
swered. "Everyone knows I'm the big
enchilada."The Heartfelt
Ayes'
By Lynn Rosellini
Newsday Washington Bureau
Washington-Rep. Robert Dri-
nan wept. Rep. Tom Railsback stud-
ied the walnut table in front of him.
Rep. Barbara Jordan stared straight
at the committee clerk, her voice
cracking when she said, "aye."
The impeachment vote came at
6:57 PM, when chairman Peter Ro-
dino Jr. told the members of the
House Judiciary Committee, "The
question is before us . .. on thesubstitute offered by the gentleman
from Maryland."
Rodino called for a voice vote.
"The ayes appear to have it," he
said. But one member objected. Ro-
dino ordered a roll call.
Rep. Harold Donohue of Massa-
chusetts, the committee's senior
Democrat, blinked his eyes quickly.
"Aye," he said. Rep. Jack Brooks of
Texas, the Democrat next in line,
continued writing. "Aye," he said.
Rep. William Hungate of Missouri,another Democrat, did not look up.
H i s voice was barely audible.
"Aye," he said.
In turn, 20 Depocrats cast their
votes. Their voices barely carried to
the back of the packed, hushed com-
mittee room.
Then it was the Republicans'
turn. Rep. Edward Hutchinson of
Michigan, the committee's ranking
minority member, broke the hush.
"No," he said loudly, dragging out
the word. Republicans who voteda g a i n s t impeachment replied
crisply. But the six 'Republicans
who voted for impeachment an-
swered in the same solemn tone as
the Democrats.
A murmur swept the committee-
room audience when Rep. Harold
Froehlich of Wisconsin looked di-
rectly at the clerk and said, "Aye."
By some accounts, Froehlich had
been considered an anti-iznpeach-
ment vote.
-Continued on Page 4RSunday, July 28, 1974
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[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, July - September, 1974], book, 1974; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616583/m1/95/: accessed May 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Southern University.