Pete McCloskey: When Politics Infects Justice (SF Chronicle, via CommonDreams)

[marmar]

Published on Tuesday, March 6, 2007 by the San Francisco Chronicle
When Politics Infects Justice
by Pete McCloskey

It seems ironic that U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., who was listed on Nixon's Enemies List, will be the one wielding the gavel in another search for the truth at a time when so many of us have begun to wonder whether our government is capable of providing us with the truth.

One of the tragic moments in American history occurred in November 1973. This was the famous "Saturday Night Massacre," when President Richard Nixon, faced with the demand for incriminating tapes and documents by Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, took an action that would lead to his resignation from the presidency in disgrace less than a year later. Nixon ordered U.S. Attorney General Elliott Richardson to fire Cox. When Richardson refused and instead resigned, as did his second in command, William Ruckelshaus, U.S. Solicitor General Robert Bork stepped up to fire Cox.

That action triggered a tough inquiry into the Watergate scandal by the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Peter Rodino, a mild-mannered congressman from New Jersey. In July 1974, after seven months of public hearings, the committee in a bipartisan vote adopted several articles of impeachment, the chief of which was for obstruction of justice. Nixon had ordered the FBI to cease its inquiry into the money trail the CIA had discovered, leading from the president's personal lawyer, Herb Kalmbach, through various hands to pay off the Watergate burglary's mastermind, E. Howard Hunt. Hunt had threatened to reveal the details of the burglary to U.S. District Court Judge John Sirica, who presided over the Watergate case, unless he was paid.

One of the younger members of the Judiciary Committee at the time was Conyers, a man Nixon had put on his notorious "Enemies List" for whatever punishment federal agencies such as the IRS might devise.

As a result of the Judiciary Committee's inquiries and the work of several dedicated U.S. attorneys, not only was Nixon forced from office, but his attorney general, John Mitchell, was indicted and sent to jail for his part in the Watergate coverup. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0306-22.htm

[AtomicKitten]

1. when politics affects policy

... justice must affect politics

[troubleinwinter]

2. Pete McCloskey...

... the only republican I ever voted for. Supported Kerry/Edwards in 2004 and marched against the war with Kerry in protest of the Viet Nam war.



2004- Pete McCloskey, former U.S. Congressman, California (R), Korean war veteran, U.S. Marines. Joining the Veterans March for Kerry on Sunday, McCloskey noted that thirty-three years ago he had been on another march, walking with John Kerry to the National Cemetery at Arlington as part of a Vietnam veterans protest of that war.

[ProudDad]

3. Pete also ran against pombo last year

and, I hope/think softened up the bastard for Jerry McNerney to take out!

http://mcnerney.house.gov/

Pete was also one of the first (of EITHER party) to come out firmly against Vietnam...

I have immense respect for him... Socially liberal, Fiscally moderate (but not crazy)...


K&R!