Peter Rodino
Seeing that Peter Rodino had died here and here brought back warm memories of the spring and summer of 1974, listening to his raspy voice on TV as he conducted the Watergate hearings. That raspy voice was by turns calm and incredulous as witness after witness testified to the byzantine workings of the "Committee to Re-elect the President," or CREEP.
Rodino's careful work on the Judiciary Committee led to remarkable bipartisan unity in bringing articles of impeachment against the president. And in the process he went from obscurity to national renown.
What a different era that was, when American's opinion of both Congress and the press actually rose as people learned more and more of the guilt of the Nixon administration, a collection of thugs and scammers who would go on to become the role models of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove.
Ah well, no point in getting nostalgic. The hounding of Bill Clinton, the blow job that shook the world, and the absurd, partisan Congressional impeachment proceedings that would follow have discredited both impeachment as a legitimate means of investigating presidential wrong-doing and the role the press in the process. All these institutions are now so far degraded that it's hard to say what could revive any of them.
Rodino's careful work on the Judiciary Committee led to remarkable bipartisan unity in bringing articles of impeachment against the president. And in the process he went from obscurity to national renown.
What a different era that was, when American's opinion of both Congress and the press actually rose as people learned more and more of the guilt of the Nixon administration, a collection of thugs and scammers who would go on to become the role models of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove.
Ah well, no point in getting nostalgic. The hounding of Bill Clinton, the blow job that shook the world, and the absurd, partisan Congressional impeachment proceedings that would follow have discredited both impeachment as a legitimate means of investigating presidential wrong-doing and the role the press in the process. All these institutions are now so far degraded that it's hard to say what could revive any of them.
posted by John at 11:23 AM
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