[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, July - September, 1974] Page: 99 of 236
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Tuesday, July 30, 1974
Second Vote 28-10 Against NixonBy Lynn Rosellini
and Myron S. Waldman
Newsday Washington Bureau
Washingon-A second article of im-
peachment, charging Richard M.
Nixon with repeated abuse of his presi-
dential powers, was approved by the
House Judiciary Committee last night
by an overwhelming majority.
The vote, which came at 11:19 PM,
was 28-10. as the pro-impeachment
forces picked up another Republican
ballot for the removal of the President.
It was that of Rep. Robert McClory of
Illinois, the second-ranking Republi-
can on the committee and in recent
weeks the spokesman for the GOP
members. McClory himself plans to
sponsor a third impeachment article
today.
The first article of impeachment,
which was approved 27-11 by the com-
mittee on Saturday night, accuses
Nixon of obstructing justice and vio-
lating his constitutional oath for offen-
ses relating entirely to Watergate. The
second article, which contains five sec-
tions, goes much further.
I t charges the President with
"acting personally and through his
subordinates and agents" to use the In-
ternal Revenue Service to violate the
constitutional rights of citizens; with
misusing the FBI and the Secret Ser-
vice; with establishing in the White
House the "plumbers" unit, which
"engaged in covert and unlawful activ-
ities," and with "failing to act" when
his closest aides tried to cover up such
unlawful activities.
Like the first article, the second will
be given to the full House, which is ex-
pected to vote to impeach the Presi-
dent. A simple majority vote there will
be sufficient to impeach. Nixon would
then go on trial in the Senate. A two-
thirds vote in the Senate is required to
remove Nixon from office. The out-
come in the Senate is uncertain.
Against last night, all 21 of the com-
mittee's Democrats voted for impeach-
ment. This time, they were joined by
seven of the committee's 17 Republi-
cans. Besides McClory, they were the
same Republicans who had voted for
impeachment on Saturday night: Tom
Railsback of Illinois; Hamilton Fish of
Poughkeepsie, Lawrence Hogan of
Maryland, M. Caldwell Butler of Vir-
ginia, William Cohen of Maine and
Harold Froehlich of Wisconsin.
Again, the defenders of, the Presi-
dent complained that the article ap-
proved last night was not sufficiently
specific. For them, Fish had this an-
swer: "For those who want to find aAP Photo
Elizabeth Holtzman is among committee members trying to get Chairman Rodino's attention yesterdaysmoking pistol, they won't find it," the
New Yorker said, "because the room is
too full of smoke."
The article approved by the commit-
tee yesterday was a heavily rewritten
modification of the original eight-
count version introduced on Wednes-
day. The substitute, submitted by Wil-
liam Hungate (D-Mo.), was largely
the work of a coalition of the commit-
tee's three southern Democrats and the
seven Republicans who voted for it.
Most of the revisions were again
written by James Mann (D-S.C.) who
had a major role in composing the first
article. The coalition of Democrats and
Republicans met early yesterday morn-
ing in McClory's office, where Mann
gave them their assignments for the
defense of the article's five points.
Mann discussed those assignments
by telehone with committee chairman
Peter Rodino (D-N.J.) who was also
distributing defense assignments to the
other Democrats.
At the very beginning of yesterday's
debate, Charles Wiggins (R-Calif.) one
of the leaders of Nixon's defense, raised
a point of order. He protested that the
article nowhere shows "a violation of
law" and that if it passed it would hold
"up to a future president an impossible
standard." Wiggins asserted, "We have
no right to impose our notions of moral-
ity and propriety."
George Danielson (D-Calif.) vigor-
ously contested Wiggins' assertion.
"The offense charged is truly a high
crime and misdemeanor in the puremeaning of the words," Danielson said.
"It is a uniquely presidential offense.
You or I or the most lowly citizen can
obstruct justice, can violate the crimi-
nal code. But only the President can
violate tie oath of office of the Presi-
dent.
"The American people," Danielson
continued, "are eager to revere their
President. They are entitled to a Presi-
dent they can revere. Is not the viola-
tion of the solemn oath of office an im-
peachable offense?"
Then Rodino rejected Wiggins' ob-
jections, saying that "no point of order
can possibly lie to . . . such offenses."
In vain, the Republican loyalists offer-
ed amendments and tried to strike the
charges. They protested that even if
thePresident and his men had tried to
use the IRS to harass.Nixon's enemies
and protect his friends, the attempts
had been in vain. The pro-impeach-
ment congressmen countered that the
attempts, even if unsuccessful, were
enough.
Mann recalled that one of the IRS
commissioners who had resisted the
White House pressure, Johnnie Walt-
ers, had law offices above his in a
two-story building in the 1960s. "He
respected the rule of law," Mann said.
If this article of impeachment did
not pass, Mann warned, "there will be
no accountability . . . Another Presi-
dent may see fit to do as he chooses.
But the next time there may be no
watchman in the night." And in urging
impeachment, the conservative south-erner declared: "Those who expect to
reap the blessings of freedom must,
like men, undergo the fatigue of sup-
porting it."
And so, with such rhetoric, the article
swept to passage as expected. Today,
planned as the final day of the com-
mittee's deliberations, McClory was to
offer a third article, one to impeach the
President on a charge of failing to re-
spond to subpenas issued by the Judi-
ciary Committee in the panel's effort
to collect evidence for its impeachment
inquiry.
McClory said yesterday that two Re-
publicans besides himself and all the
Democrats except one had agreed to
support that article. That would make
the vote 23-15 for approval, the closest
vote so far.
After that, Edward Mezvinsky (D-
Iowa) will propose an impeachment
article dealing with the President's per-
sonal finances and income-tax returns.
Its passage is questionable, with Mez-
vinsky conceding yesterday that he
has the support of only 17 to 19 of the
committee's 38 members.
Finally, Robert Drinan (D-Mass.)
and Elizabeth Holtzman (D-Brooklyn)
were talking about introducing an im-
peachment article charging the Presi-
dent with illegally conducting a secret
war in Cambodia. The article's chances
of committee approval are slim. Last
night, they were discussing whether to
withhold it from the committee and of-
fer it on the floor of the full House
when the impeachment debate begins
there.Impeachment, to Go
-Contin'ued from Page 5R
for a half hour. During that time, he
did not refer, directly or indirectly, to
Watergate or impeachment.
There was a question-and-answer
session after the speech, but the Presi-
dent did not stay for that. He told the
audience that he wished he had time
to shake each and every hand, and
then he left, leaving three top aides to
handle the questions.
Leaving quickly was the subject of
debate within the Nixon staff. As. of
Monday night, one top White Houseofficial was arguing strenuously that
Nixon himself should stay for ques-
tions. His view was that it would look
bad if Nixon appeared unwilling to
handle questions personally now and
that Nixon most likely had very little
to fear from the audience of business-
men who had supported him with en-
thusiasm, votes and money in years
past.
"If he doesn't answer questions at
that meeting, then you'll know that I
lost a battle," a Nixon official said
Monday. Presumably, the final deci-sion against taking questions rested
with the President, who has not made
himself available to reporters since the
content of the first Nixon tape was
made public months ago.
The Nixon men had been looking for
a friendly forum from which the Presi-
dent could discuss the country's infla-
tion. "The President has to show that
he is in charge of the economy and is
well in charge," an aide observed re-
cently. Would doing that help his im-
peachment problems? "Really, it's
more the other way around," the aide
answered. "If the President is believedby the country to be doing nothing
about inflation, it will hurt him over-
all, and this will not help public opin-
ion on impeachment or anything else."
In the past weeks, Nixon aides were
urging the TV networks to carry the
speech live, but they did not formally
request the time. Instead they billed
the appearance as a major address. As
it turned out, the-President did not an-
nounce any major new economic pro-
gram. He promised to hold down fed-
eral spending and asked bi sinessmen
and consumers to join w 1h him on a
"great crusade" to buy less.
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[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, July - September, 1974], book, 1974; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616583/m1/99/: accessed May 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Southern University.