had, and certainly john doar didn't have the fire that jack brooks wanted, and jack brooks sort of led a -- the group that actually involved jerry szekely and a whole team that we had to deal with over the whole course of the inquiry. but i remember one day i got called up from congressman brooks' office, asked to come over. so i went over, and jack brooks had a resume in front of him. jack brooks says, boy, he said -- and he said this gentleman's name who i can't remember at the time. he was on the staff. a young lawyer from yale or something, and he said, do you know so and so? i said, yes, sir. chairman assigned -- he's a member of the staff. he said, boy, do you know where he's from? i said, i'm not sure what school he went to. he said, no, sir. he said, do you know where he was born? i said, no, sir. he said, he was born in beaumont, texas. he says, does that mean anything to you? i said, no, sir. you have to think, this is another generation, and i was dressed in a little three-piece suit, a thin tie. jack brooks reaches across the table, grabs my tie. and starts pulling me acros

jack brooks and others were still -- jerry and others i guess for years carried on that they were very unhappy with the way this was conducted. >> but they wanted five articles? >> i don't know. you'd have to go back. they were unhappy. they just didn't feel he, john door, were -- with their choices and they didn't carry the process and i'm thinking what a momentous event in our history has been sort of accepted by the american public. that's how the process was to work. but, listen, it was a very traumatic undertaking. you're not going to get unanimous opinion on this. >> do you think the process worked? >> i think the process worked brilliantly. >> you leave government. you go into the movie business. you had something to do with phillip lee? >> yes, i produced it. i want to leave -- it doesn't matter what i did. i had a lot of wonderful mentors, peter rodino. another wonderful mentor, john gardner. when this process ended i said, what am i going to do with my life? he said, well, go reinvent yourself. constantly reinvent yourself. he was just this wonderful man. i decided i wanted t

partisan as the congressman from texas who at a democratic caucus was asked, what is the theme of jack brooks? what's the theme of this article ii about agency abuse, fbi, cia, it's all so confusing. i don't understand it. he took his cigar out of it, and said the theme of this argument is we're going to get that son of a bitch out of there. but staff weren't permitted to think or speak in some ways. but there's no question that some of them were not friendly to president nixon. >> was there some pressure on the republicans in the staff because there are a number of minority members of the staff who were very disappointed with how things were going and how john dohr was doing his job. was there any pressure on you? were they asking you questions? >> the republican members of the committee had a perfect right to have their own legal research done. i did that. i think that minority memo you referred to earlier might have been about st. clair's right of cross-examination. there would be the occasional research request from dell latter, chuck wiggins, robert mclurie, somebody on the -- dave denni

jack brooks, a cigar-smoking congressman from texas was leaning way back in his chair smoking a cigar, relaxing. he came down hard, took the cigar out of his mouth and said the thing of this article is that we're going to get that son of a -- out of there. i wouldn't call that bipartisan. >> i was responsible for trying to cut the crime in the district of columbia. that was one of my jobs. there was a little thought of that as i was being driven away, handcuffed. well, it was one of tremendous disappointment and sadness, because i was a deep believer in richard nixon. i felt that he had made decisions that were extremely valuable and important to the world. his opening to china, working out a deal on anti-ballistic missile treat which russia, narcotics control, things that were great that i believed in. just a few of us went over the line. and it wasn't the administration as a whole. there are just a few of us that, either through lack of experience or basically ignorance, arrogance, immaturity, whatever it was, made some calls at critical points that basically led inexplicably to wat

jack abramoff. should be a lot going on. >> not appearing all together? >> should we do that? >> it could be very interesting. >> no, no. thanks so much for joining us. have a wonderful fourth of july. i'm brooke baldwin in new york. >>> now to carol costello in "cnn newsroom." >> good morning, and happy fourth of july to you too. >>> hot, hot, hot. today could be one of the hottest july fourths ever. that could happen in several major cities. heat, humidity, and thunderstorms will blanket the nation. >>> plus, this. >> just think of how many we got into one sentence. that was really impressive. what wrote this [ bleep ]? >> oh, new york mayor michael bloomberg unplugged at the nathan's hot dog wagon. seems he couldn't stomach the puns, like let me be frank. it's going to be a dog fight. and i'll relish it. it's bloomberg like we've never seen him. >>> also -- >> you can see the sparks flying all over the place. it was raining fire down on us. >> on the frontlines, colorado firefighters taking cnn with them as they fight the fires home by home. the fire chief telling the denver post this morning he knew the fire would happen, that it was a monster ready to awaken and kill. >>> and on this inde

jack abramoff. should be a lot going on. >> not appearing all together? >> should we do that? >> it could be very interesting. >> no, no. thanks so much for joining us. have a wonderful fourth of july. i'm brookerol costello in "cnn newsroom." >> good morning, and happy fourth of july to you too. >>> hot, hot, hot. today could be one of the hottest july fourths ever. that could happen in several major cities. heat, humidity, and thunderstorms will blanket the nation. >>> plus, this. >> just think of how many we got into one sentence. that was really impressive. what wrote this [ bleep ]? >> oh, new york mayor michael bloomberg unplugged at the nathan's hot dog wagon. seems he couldn't stomach the puns, like let me be frank. it's going to be a dog fight. and i'll relish it. it's bloomberg like we've never seen him. >>> also -- >> you can see the sparks flying all over the place. it was raining fire down on us. >> on the frontlines, colorado firefighters taking cnn with them as they fight the fires home by home. the fire chief telling the denver post this morning he knew the fire would happen, that it was a monster ready to