This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared in the Home Reporter and Spectator dated October 11, 2019
On February 6, 1974, the House of Representatives held a vote on the floor and passed H.Res.803.
Rep. John Murphy, representing Staten Island, voted in favor of the measure, as did Rep. Hugh Carey, whose district covered Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, and Sunset Park. Rep. Bertram Podell, who represented Bensonhurst, Gravesend, and Coney Island also voted yea.
In fact, the entire congressional delegation from New York City, which included representatives such as Ed Koch and Shirley Chisolm, voted in the affirmative. When all votes were tallied, the measure passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, 410-4, granting the House Judiciary Committee full subpoena power for an impeachment inquiry into President Richard Nixon.
Republican members of Congress supported the President at that time and didn’t believe he should be impeached, yet all but 4 of them agreed that the facts, as they were known at that time, required an inquiry.
In 1974, New York’s 10th congressional district was represented by Mario Biaggi, grandfather of current State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi. The area it covered, including a swath of the Bronx and part of Queens, was similar to the district Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez now represents.
Today, New York’s 10th congressional district is comprised of the west side of Manhattan and various parts of Southern Brooklyn and is repped by Jerry Nadler, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, which is the committee in which articles of impeachment against President Trump would be drawn up and voted on if the current proceedings progressed to that point.
Next door in New York’s 11th congressional district, which covers Staten Island and much of Southern Brooklyn, the question of an impeachment inquiry has garnered a great deal of attention recently. Two weeks ago, it was centered around whether Rep. Max Rose would come out in favor, in light of the whistleblower complaint related to presidential dealings with Ukraine. This past week, it has been in response to his declaration of support for the House beginning an inquiry.
With Rep. Rose publicly for it, just as in February of 1974, the entire New York City congressional delegation is unified behind the need to begin this process. It is not something any of them take joy in. To the contrary, they have made clear it is a sad time for the nation, yet a time when they are called on to act as required by our constitution.
The latest troubling revelations may seem so distant from our neighborhoods, as they deal with the President and geopolitical matters 5,000 miles away, but our representatives here in Southern Brooklyn can, and very well may, play pivotal roles in the course of history.
The members of the House from New York’s 10th and 11th congressional districts have the responsibility of being the stewards of the government the framers of the constitution gave us. As Benjamin Franklin referred to it, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
This is how we keep it, just as in 1974 when Rep. Peter Rodino, from New Jersey’s 10th congressional district, as Chairperson of the House Judiciary Committee, kept a seven-month-long impeachment inquiry focused on finding facts.
Rodino had only just taken over as chair from outgoing Rep. Emanuel Celler, who represented Southern Brooklyn for fifty years in a district that had been known as both the 10th and 11th congressional district during his tenure. Celler had lost his Democratic primary to Elizabeth Holtzman, who joined the House Judiciary Committee and participated in the impeachment inquiry into President Nixon.
The members of the House from New York’s 10th and 11th congressional districts have the responsibility of being the stewards of the government the framers of the constitution gave us.
Ultimately, that committee passed three articles of impeachment. Seven Republicans voted in favor of at least one article. Within a week, senior Republican senators informed the President he would be impeached and that there were enough GOP senators who would vote to convict him to exceed the two-thirds threshold required for removal. Nixon announced his resignation the following day.
In the past ten years, Congress has impeached two men, federal judges charged with corruption and obstruction of justice. The system was used. It worked. As it did in 1974.
