[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, July - September, 1974] Page: 98 of 236
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Saturday, July 27, 1974
Coalitions on aNewsday Washington Bureau
Washington-The dinner break
came at 6 PM. In the upper tier of the
House Judiciary Committee room,
Rep. Tom Railsback gathered his
swing-vote coalition and tried to keep
his voice low.
"Okay," he whispered. "Let's try it.
The card room of the Capitol Hill
Club."
One by one, the seven members of
the coalition sauntered from the hear-
ing room. One by one, they walked the
three blocks to the club used by con-Railsback
gressional Republicans and climbed
the stairs to the card room.
But the card room was taken. Inside,
seated at dinner tables, were Rep.
Charles Wiggins (R-Calif.); Rep.
Edward Hutchinson (R-Mich.), and
Rep. Trent Lott (R-Miss.). The pro-
Nixon coalition had beaten the swing-
vote coalition to the room. Railsback
(R-Ill.) and his followers hastily
moved their meeting to a private din-
ing room.
The committee's coalitions are col-
liding now. All week, each group has
held secret meetings in restaurants and
office buildings on Capitol Hill. AllWiggins
Hutchinson
Collision
week, each group has plotted in pri-
vate what it would later present to the
public during the televised debate.
The Wiggins group-intensely loyal
to the President-sometimes held im-
promptu meetings in the committee
room after the cameras had flicked off.
The Railsback group-a coalition of
Republicans and southern Democrats
who are prepared to vote for limited
articles of impeachment-usually met
in Railsback's office.
T h e Democratic- liberal group-
ready to approve articles that would
make the Railsback group happy-in a
vain attempt to avoid newsmen, met inCohen
Tuesday, July 30, 1974
30 GOPersTo
Ask
Newsday Washington Bureau
Washington-With House support
for the President draining rapidly,
more than 30 Republican congressmen
are now asking that Richard Nixon re-
quest his own impeachment, a GOP
representative said yesterday.
The Republicans, mostly freshman
members, have made the appeal to
H o u s e Minority Leader John J.
Rhodes (R-Ariz.), the congressman
said. He added that he expected
Rhodes to pass the message on to the
White House.
According to the congressman, the
rationale for the appeal is that such a
request by the President would hasten
the impeachment process-and, if the
Senate accepted Nixon's defense, his
exoneration. There are other reasons
that the congressman did not mention,
however, and chief among them is that
such a request would rescue the Re-
publican congressmen from the most
painful vote of their lives.
If the President asked for his own
impeachment, a vote for impeachment
would no longer incur the wrath of
Nixon loyalists among their constitu-
ents, and Nixon opponents would be
satisfied with such a vote. "That would
get everybody off the hook," another
GOP congressman said. "That's some-
thing under consideration."
One House GOP leader, Rep. Robert
Michel (R-Ill.), the chairman of the
GOP Congressional Campaign Com-
mittee, has condemned such an ap-
proach as a copout and has told report-
ers that he would condemn as aImpeachment
coward any congressman who tried it.
The White House has maintained
that it does not expect the full House
to accept the Judiciary Committee's
recommendation that Nixon be im-
peached.
The request that Nixon seek his own
impeachment illustrates the confusion
and despair of many GOP congress-
men. The most recent impeachment
message from the Republican leader-
ship was simple: Don't talk about it. A
letter sent by Rhodes and Minority
Whip Les Arends of Illinois to all Re-
publican congressmen last week ad-
vised them to "keep their own counsel
concerning their intentions in the mat-
ter of impeachment until all the evi-
dence is in and arguments concluded."
Under normal circumstances, when
the House is about to consider a major
bill, House GOP leaders take two
steps. First, the Republican Policy
Committee issues a statement on the
bill. Second, on the day of the vote, a
"whip notice" goes out to members ad-
vising: "The minority leader asks you
to vote (yes no) on H.R. , for
the following reasons ..."
The impeachment bill will be differ-
ent, according to Rep. John Anderson
of Illinois, the Republican conference
chairman. There will be no policy rul-
ing by Republicans and no whip no-
tice, he says, nor will there be arm-
twisting of any kind. "I just don't see
this as a kind of situation where you
call the party faithful together and
jawbone them," Anderson said. " . .
That isn't the function of the leader-
ship today."
There are two reasons for departingfrom past practice, Anderson said.
First, Republican leaders in the House
disagree on the issue. He would not
say how he believes the leaders will
vote, and he said he has not yet made
up his own mind, on impeachment.
In addition, Republican leaders have
consistently demanded that the House
Judiciary Committee's impeachment
vote be nonpartisan. "I find a certain
inconsistency," Anderson said, "in
turning round and saying we should
take a party position."
Rhodes, the GOP leader in the
House, is expected to announce within
the next 10 days how he will vote on
impeachment. Between that time and
the day of the impeachment vote-now
expected in the last week of August-
Rhodes will call each of the 187 House
Republicans into his office. Meeting
with eight congressmen at a time,
Rhodes will explain his decision and
his reasons. According to a source.
close to Rhodes, the sessions will be
limited to an exchange of views.
When the bill reaches the House
floor, a fight against impeachment
probably would be led by the same Re-
publicans who have been leading the
opposition in committee: Reps.
Charles Wiggins of California, Charles
Sandman of New Jersey and David
Dennis of Indiana.
House Democratic Leader Thomas
P. O'Neill has predicted that impeach-
ment will pass in the House by be-
tween 70 and 100 votes. The bill needs
only a simple majority. Anderson said
that 40 to 50 Republicans are leaning
toward impeachment.
-Waldman and RoselliniCourse
a government operations committee
room in the Rayburn Office Building.
In the card room of the Capitol Hill
Club yesterday evening, the coalition
headed by Wiggins decided to make
motions to strike each of the nine
clauses in Article One of the bill of im-
peachment. Each motion would be de-
bated and voted upon separately, a
process that would take many hours.
Wiggins insisted that, in this way, the
television-watching nation would be
able to judge the truth or falsehood of
each clause.
In the dining room, the swing voters
for impeachment wondered how they
could soothe the Wiggins coalition.
They decided to do nothing, even
though the Wiggins plan would mean
delaying the vote on Article One for at
least another day. "It's going to roll
the way it is," Rep. William Cohen
(R-Maine) reported after the meeting.
The Democrats were holding a cau-
cus of their own in the back room of
the committee chamber. They, too, de-
cided, to let the Wiggins group have its
way. One senior member of the group
said later the Democrats felt that it
would be unfair to cut off debate, and
that it .would look bad on national
television.
So when the debate resumed later
last evening, Wiggins and his group in-
itiated the debate on the clauses,
which lasted the rest of the night and
was to continue today.
Last night's activity was just an-
other in a series of behind-the-scenes
maneuvers that have gone on all week.
The Railsback group was born Sunday
night with a series of phone calls be-
tween Railsback and other swing Re-
publicans. They told each other that
they would have difficulty agreeing to
what they considered the broad im-
peachment articles drafted by John
Doar, the committee's chief impeach-
ment counsel. They favored something
more limited.
On Tuesday morning, Railsback in-
vited six members to meet in his office:
Republicans M. Caldwell Butler of
Virginia, William S. Cohen of Maine,
and Hamilton Fish Jr. of Poughkeepsie,
and Democrats Ray Thornton of Ark-
ansas, Walter Flowers of Alabama and
James R. Mann of South Carolina.
The seven congressmen began draft-
ing a substitute set of impeachment
articles.
The secret meetings of the Railsback
group continued all week. At the same
time, liberal Democratic committee
members were meeting secretly in the
Rayburn building to write their own
substitute articles.
Both groups reported periodically to
committee chairman Peter W. Rodino
Jr. (D-N.J.) by telephone. Rodino,
aware that the support of committee
Republicans and southern Democrats
the Railsback group could assure pass-
age of impeachment in the House by
influencing the votes of other congress-
men, agreed to a substitute measure.
In a last-minute meeting yesterday
morning, the Democrats agreed to
adopt the initial article of impeach-
ment proposed by the Railaback coali-
tion: obtruction of justice in the Wa-
tergate case. Shortly after Rodino
gaveled the meeting to order at 11:50
AM, Sarbanes introduced the compro-
mise measure.
Later, the Nixon loyalists did battle,
and the resolution remained to be ap-
proved. So for at least one more day,
in the crannies of the Rayburn Build-
ing, the pro-and anti-impeadhment
forces will continue to plot to obstruct
a vote of impeachment or to ease its
way. -Myron S. Waldman and
Lynn Rosellini:,:;
> ;;:
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[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, July - September, 1974], book, 1974; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616583/m1/98/: accessed May 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Southern University.