John Joseph Moakley: “I was here back in 1974, when Richard Nixon was being considered for impeachment. Thomas O'Neill was not the speaker.…”

“I was here back in 1974, when Richard Nixon was being considered for impeachment. Thomas O'Neill was not the speaker. Carl Albert was. Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, no resolution to impeach President Nixon ever came to the House. President Nixon resigned before that happened. Robert Healy, the noted Boston Globe writer, in an excellent op-ed piece which ran in the Boston Globe yesterday, compares the possible impeachments of President Nixon and President Reagan and the country's responses to them. His piece quotes a book by Robert Timberg which says, ``There were similarities between Watergate and Iran-Contra: abuse of authority, bunker mentality, cover-up, oval office tapes, National Security Council messages, televised hearings, world class stupidity.'' But there was a difference. Tip O'Neill knew it. We all knew it. Mr. Speaker, Speaker O'Neill knew the weight of impeachment. With Nixon, Healy says, ``a great majority of Americans had accepted the notion that Nixon had to go.…”