Word: rodino
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...committee's final public deliberation sometimes drifted into partisan bickering and time-consuming parliamentary gamesmanship, the result vindicated the patience and pace of the committee's determined chairman Peter Rodino. Through some seven months of laborious study, he kept the committee's overworked staff and its philosophically and temperamentally diverse members driving toward a resolution of its agonizing dilemma. When his committee faced its final act of judgment, the country was treated to a surprise: a group of nationally obscure and generally underrated Congressmen and Congresswomen rose to the occasion. Often with eloquence and poise, they faced the television cameras...
...Rodino had long since been thoroughly convinced that impeachment was warranted by the committee's vast accumulation of evidence that was presented by Special Counsel John Doar and Minority Counsel Albert Tenner through eleven weeks of closed hearings and laid out in 36 notebooks of "statements of information." Rodino had one main aim as the days of decision approached: to secure maximum committee support for any articles of impeachment that would be recommended to the House. He knew that there was no hope of enlisting about ten Republicans firmly committed to Nixon's defense, but he hoped that articles could...
...Rodino and some House Democratic leaders then moved adroitly to seek the help of the Southern Democrats on the committee. These men, Flowers, Mann and Thornton, were offended by Nixon's encroachment on the Constitution and on such agencies as the FBI and IRS. They also are persuasive, soft-sell politicians with an ability to find common cause with the undecided Republicans. The key to gaining maximum support for articles, one House leader explained, was "to put together the Southern Democrats and the Republicans." The way to do that, this veteran told Rodino, was "to get Walter Flowers...
Well aware that his state of Alabama had long liked Nixon, Flowers seemed the most likely Democrat to vote against impeachment. He had developed an ulcer over the problem. Gently, Rodino urged Flowers to seek meetings with the moderate Republicans to see if they might find areas of agreement. The chairman asked the articulate and diplomatic Mann to do the same thing. By Tuesday, private meetings had begun among three Southerners and four uncommitted Republicans: Railsback, Cohen, Butler and Fish. This centrist group stood between the all-out impeachers and the Nixon loyalists...
...Jerome Zeifman, a 49-year-old Democratic liberal, had been shunted aside by Doar, who had been recruited from the outside. Seeking advice and help from Zeifman, many of the majority Democrats began framing articles of their own as alternatives to those presented by Doar and those of Brooks. Rodino purposely refrained from taking part in the drafting sessions but kept in touch with all of them. He saw his role as a coordinator who would be more effective if he did not become identified with specific draft proposals...