Word: rodino
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Last week the mood in Washington changed abruptly. Impeachment once again picked up momentum in Congress. Despite some past mistakes, Representative Peter Rodino's Judiciary Committee was now seen to have performed remarkably well in virtually uncharted constitutional waters. As it wound up its examination of Nixon's "defense" witnesses-who turned out to be markedly unhelpful to the President -it seemed almost certain that a vote for impeachment would come by the end of the month. The previous week's minimum estimate of votes for impeachment (25 to 13) was now moving toward the maximum estimate...
...Seamy Things." While Watergate cases were being played out in the courts, the impeachment of the President was proceeding in the House of Representatives with growing partisan bitterness. Two weeks ago, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, New Jersey Democrat Peter Rodino, announced that the committee would attempt to speed its impeachment hearings by calling only two of the six witnesses requested by the President's defense lawyer, James St. Clair. Last week Rodino reversed himself and said that all six would be called. He made this conciliatory gesture in return for a concession from House Republicans: their...
...procedural change seemed eminently reasonable. Congressman Edward Hutchinson, senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, gave it strong support-though he has disagreed with Rodino on some other matters. "I never heard of a judicial or even a quasi-judicial proceeding," he said, "where witnesses under oath would be questioned by 38 or 40 people." But many other House Republicans were angry at Rodino, and they rebelled against their own leadership. The change would amount to "parliamentary suicide," declared Congressman David Dennis of Indiana. In the end, 120 Republicans (out of 187) opposed the rules change, and the motion fell...
Stepping up the tempo, the Rodino committee for the first time put in a full five-day week of deliberation. Long criticized for its slow pace and three-day weeks, the committee suddenly came under opposing fire from the White House for its haste. The President's special counsel, Dean Burch, assailed the committee as "a partisan lynch mob" acting under orders from the Democratic "hierarchy" of the Congress. Chairman Rodino came under intense personal criticism after Los Angeles Times Reporter Jack Nelson indirectly quoted him as saying in an informal chat with three newsmen (Rodino thought...
...forums and would delay the committee's work. The debate continued for nearly six hours, with four Democrats at one point joining a solid Republican lineup for including the St. Clair choices. That produced a 21-to-17 vote in St. Clair's favor. But then Chairman Rodino called a recess, caucused with the committee Democrats and persuaded two of the four (Don Edwards of California and James Mann of South Carolina) to switch their votes. The resulting 19-19 tie killed the motion. By a vote of 33 to 5, the committee then approved the two-list...