Jim Sensenbrenner: “we have heard a lot about censure. I think it is important to follow the constitutional and historical precedents of the…”

“we have heard a lot about censure. I think it is important to follow the constitutional and historical precedents of the House of Representatives in that censure is not an alternative. We need look back in 1974, which was the last time the entire issue of impeaching the President of the United States came up. I would like to quote from the book, How the Good Guys Finally Won, Notes from an Impeachment Summer, by Jimmy Breslin, published by Ballantine Books in 1975. This book quoted our former distinguished Speaker, Thomas O'Neill from Massachusetts, as follows: O'Neill went down the hall, picking his way through the tourists, to attend the meeting at which John Rhodes, the Republican leader of the House, gave it one last try for Nixon. Rhodes said he wanted the impeachment resolution recommitted with instructions that there should be a vote on censuring the President. ``I am bitterly opposed to that,'' O'Neill said. ``But you wouldn't be opposed to us having a vote on censure, would you?'' Rhodes asked. ``Yes, I would,'' O'Neill said. I think that my friends on the other side of the aisle should listen to their former Speaker one last time, because on this one, he is right. Mr. Speaker, today we enter the final stage of the impeachment process.”