Mr. Railsback . Chairman, thank you, and members of the committee by saying that you, mr. Chairman, i think in a rather difficult assignment with you because you know on many occasions i think you have handled yourself very well. And i think i can say for the most members of the committee that during these six months through the 38 volumes of evidence, the listening to the live witnesses morning, afternoon and night that i can be proud of my judiciary colleagues, most of them. I feel badly as Charlie Sandman did about the leaks, the selective leaks, some of which i think the newspapers made a mistake in playing. Although i know they have a job. I used to like to be on the House Judiciary Committee when we were worried about penal reform and juvenile delinquency, trying to improve some very important things in our country that needed improving, but im about to reconsider my assignment now that we have had amnesty, abortion, impeachment and now a bomb threat. Let me say that im one of th
Has in fact either authorized the bake in or personal the cover up. We were persuaded beyond a convincing case that he should stand trial in the political sense of having to have a trial in the senate but nobody felt great about it. Most people get burdened. They didnt want to. We felt there was no alternative. We were the elected officials and had a duty to see whether the highest officer in the country had breached his duty. William cohen, 1974, a republican member of the House Judiciary Committee. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for being with us on cspans 3 American History tonight. Tv 8 00 eastern time sunday evening we will continue our look at house judiciary committ committee. Our coverage of the 40th anniversary of water gate continues including debate over article two which charge nixon of abuse with power. You will also hear from the forrer director of the library and museum and explains how the committees vote affecting our understanding of president ial power today.
Unless we fulfill our obligations as these fallible human beings in this genius of a governmental structure, our obligation and our duty is to impeach this president that this country might get about doing its business the way it should do and pursuant to standards that have been set for this country since its beginning. Thank you. I recognize the gentleman from mississippi, mr. Lott for general debate. Thank you, mr. Chairman. For a period not to exceed 15 minutes. Thank you. This has truly been an awesome, time consuming and exhaustive task and i wonder if any of us can really appreciate what this moment in history can mean to the future of our country. While at various points along the way ive been somewhat disgusted with this Committee Proceedings such as when we spend an hour earlier this week trying to decide not whether or not we should have television cramps but whether or not to have lights for the Television Cameras i must admit in alcan didness it has been very fair and i mu
Garman. Hague said, bob, the president wants you to argue this case in the Supreme Court on the tapes. I said i cant. I said, well, because jawarski is a member of the department of justice, and i have been on his i have necessarily been on his side. If i switch sides and oppose him, my next argument is going to be before the character and Fitness Committee dealing with the state bar as to why i shouldnt be disbarred. I cant start arguing the case on both sides. So st. Claire then said that this is where i kind of lost some respect for st. Claire. He said, hey, walk the way, muttering something about technicalities. St. Claire leaned over and said, i think youre right. I said tell him so. He said maybe i will some day. That struck me as not the most standup position i had heard in a while. Just so were clear, you felt that it was right to fire cox because the president had the authority to do so . The authority to do so and i thought he had good reason to do so. Because of the press co
Thats not what it was about. Okay. You guys want to pick up the point about the bay of pigs . You want to start . Go for it. All ill say is, nixon was i read the question a couple different ways. Nisksson was often interested to ask his people, could we release some prior records from president s kennedy and johnson that he thought would look embarrassing to him. And he wanted the bay of pigs records themselves out. It was not a high moment for kennedy foreign policy. So i think nixon does talk, does scheme at times to release records out about democrats, and predecessors that he thought would make them look worse and him look better. Let me add one thing about the kennedy assassination. I had the privilege of getting to interview gerald ford. He became president 40 years ago. And president ford, ill always remember, he called me over, i did my interview and he said, come here. I went over, and he said, you see this stack . He had a huge stack of papers. I said yes. He said, you see th