THE CONGRESS: The Fateful Vote to Impeach

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and too strong for most of the undecided members. But the articles had their intended effect; many members reacted against the Brooks proposals and began working on alternative drafts of their own. As one staff leader later explained, "That got the members thinking. They also began to wake up to the fact that they shouldn't leave it to Doar and the staff."

The general domination of the staff work by Doar was resented by some veteran committee members. They felt that their regular counsel, Jerome Zeifman, a 49-year-old Democratic liberal, had been shunted aside by Doar, who had been recruited from the outside. Seeking advice and help from Zeifman, many of the majority Democrats began framing articles of their own as alternatives to those presented by Doar and those of Brooks. Rodino purposely refrained from taking part in the drafting sessions but kept in touch with all of them. He saw his role as a coordinator who would be more effective if he did not become identified with specific draft proposals.

Soon two overlapping groups were working on articles: 1) a partial Democratic caucus, heavily influenced by Brooks but not dominated by him, and 2) the coalition of Southern Democrats and impeachment-leaning Republicans. The Southerners were able to shuttle between the two groups and thus were especially influential. Surprisingly, the coalition group moved more quickly toward agreement than the all-Democratic drafters. By the end of Tuesday, said one of the coalition Congressmen, "we had unanimity, a consensus, in two major areas: the abuse of power and the obstruction of justice." It was then clear that at least four Republicans — Railsback, Cohen, Butler and Fish — would go for impeachment.

How Private Decisions Were Made

In this seven-member coalition, the thinking of Southern Democrat and Northern Republican had much in common. "I had a yearning, an innate desire to find the President innocent," recalled Walter Flowers. "I put the blinders on like the old mule used to wear going down the road with the wagon behind him. I couldn't see anything ahead except the road." He was partic ularly troubled by the March 21, 1973 tape, not merely the celebrated "For Christ's sake, get it" quote, but rather, as Flowers put it, "the matter-of-fact way in which the payment of hush money was discussed. It shocked my conscience, I'll tell you."

He was also disturbed by the discrepancy between what the President was doing and what he was saying. "You take the whole sordid mess and compare it to the public pronouncements of the President, and it just doesn't fit." He talked often with Ray Thorn ton and James Mann, sometimes as they walked together to the House floor, and finally decided. "I felt that if we didn't impeach, we'd just ingrain and stamp in our highest office a stan dard of conduct that's just unacceptable."

Flowers in turn was an important influence on the Republicans in the group. At a Sunday meeting, he told the undecided seven, "This is something we just cannot walk away from. It hap pened, and now we've got to deal with it." Recalled Caldwell But ler later: "I knew at that second he was right." Butler, whose Virginia district is heavily pro-Nixon, made his decision soon after a visit to his