On the recordFebruary 4, 2020
in 1974, after the House Judiciary Committee voted to approve Articles of Impeachment against President Nixon, Chairman Peter Rodino, of my home State of New Jersey, a lifelong Newark resident of my home city who had been thrust into the high-profile position only the previous year, returned to his office and called his wife. When she answered the phone, this chairman, this longtime Congressman broke down in tears and cried. Forty-six years later, our Nation has found itself under similar duress, and I agree with my fellow Newarker--impeaching a President is a profoundly sad time for our Nation. It is a painful time. No matter what party, if you love your country, then this is heartbreaking. When we think about our history as Americans, so many of us have reverence for our Founding Fathers and our founding documents. They represented imperfect genius. We talk about the Declaration of Independence. We hail the Constitution. These documents literally bent the arc of not just our own history but human history for democratic governance on the planet. While these were milestones in the path of our Nation's relatively brief existence, the governing document that came between the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution is often overlooked--the Articles of Confederation.…
