thomas railsback. he passed away on monday, the day before his trial began. some of you may have known or even served with congressman thomas ralsback, he was a republican from illinois and second ranking member of the house judiciary committee when that committee was conducting its impeachment inquiry into president nixon. in july of 1974 as the inquiry was coming to a close, congressman railsback began meeting with a bipartisan group of members from the house. three other republicans and three democrats. here in the senate, they might have called them the gang of seven. they gathered and they talked and they labored over language and ultimately helped develop a bipartisan support for the articles that led a group of republican senators including barry goldwater and howard baker to tell president nixon that he must resign. some say that the nixon impeachment might not have moved forward were it not for those four courageous republicans by congressman railsback and it pained the congressman because he credited nixon with giving him his seat. with getting him

railsback passed away on monday at the age of 87.ion to holding the republican president accountable for his actions by making it a bipartisan vote and voting against party lines. on the house floor, railsback said close to tears, in my opinion, richard nixon has done many wonderful things for this country, for his country. i wish the president could do something to absolve himself. railsback's legacy was referenced in the current house impeachment hearings when democrats urged for courage from republicans. congresswoman zoe lofgren asked where is our bill cohen, where is our hamilton fish, where is our tom railsback. and other passing from the nixon era, an aide to the nixon white house and the first person on that staff to receive a prison sentence, eggle krge passed away on saturday at the age of 80. kr on gh was one of the leaders of the plumbers, a unit responsible for covering up confidential leaks which plagued the nixon administration. krogh pled guilty to conspiracy against the rights of citizens in 1973 for breaking into in

just this week, america lost a hero, thomas railsback who passed away on monday before the trial beganme of you may have known or served with him. he was a republican from illinois, the second ranking member on the house judiciary committee when that committee was conducting its impeachment inquiry into president nixon. in july of 1974 as the inquiry was coming to a close he began needing with a bipartisan group of members of the house, three other republicans and three democrats. here in the senate they might have called them the gang of 7. they gathered and talked and labored over language, bipartisan support for the articles, a group of republican senators including barry goldwater and howard baker to tell president nixon that he must resign. some say the nixon impeachment might not have moved forward were it not for those four courageous republicans led by congressman railsback. it pained the congressman because he credited next with giving him his seat, with getting him elected. he did it because he said seeing all the evidence was something we had to do because the evidence was t

evidence emerged, a bipartisan consensus emerged on the committee and a number of republicans, tom railsback, who just passed away, caldwell butler, who loved richard nixon. he was a huge fan of richard nixon. but they couldn't turn away from the evidence that there president had committed abuse of power, cheated in the election, and that they had to vote to impeach him. when it came to the clinton impeachment, that was, again, started out among very partisan lines, and it ended along partisan lines. and i believe the reason why, as i said a short while earlier, was that we never had a high crime in misdemeanor. that was the problem. with nixon, we had clear abuse of presidential authority to up and a constitutional scheme, to cheat in an election and members of both parties voted to impeach. with clinton, we had private misconduct. yes, i think probably a crime because he lied about that under oath. but it wasn't misuse of presidential authority. as i said, any husband caught in an affair could've lied about it and it didn't involve the use of presidential authority. so we never got beyond

you saw it as a young lawyer. >> absolutely, and i remember tom railsback.ow many republicans were part of drafting the articles of impeachment and voting for them. it was a time before there were just -- you know, then there were only three networks and we had all the same facts. everybody agreed on the facts, and now we live in a bubble where we believe one set of facts, people who watch fox believe another, and so we're not going to get to the same place. but it was a time of bipartisan, factual-based things, and it's what gives me some hope that there were people sitting in the senate who will listen to the facts because the case laid out was absolutely crystal clear that the crimes were committed, that impeachable offenses were committed. the law is clear. i'll be very interested to hear dershowitz and what he has to say now as opposed to what he said in '98 because he was right in '98, and now he's taking an opposite position, and he's wrong. he's just wrong. >> bill kristol, are we engaging in too much gauzy memory of a time when republicans crossed o

evidence emerged, a bipartisan consensus emerged on the committee and a number of republicans, tom railsback just passed away, caldwell butler who loved richard nixon. he was a huge fan of richard nixon. but they couldn't turn away from the evidence that their president had committed abuse of power, cheat in the election, and that they had to vote to impeach him. when it came to the clinton impeachment, that was again, it started out along very partisan lines. and it ended along partisan lines. and i believe the reason why, as i said a short while earlier, was that we never had a high crime and misdemeanor. that was the problem. with nixon, we had clear abuse. a presidential authority to up-end the constitutional scheme to cheat in an election and members of both parties voted to impeach. with clinton, we had private misconduct. yes, i think probably a crime because he lied about that under oath. but wasn't misuse of presidential authority. any husband caught in an affair could have lied about it and it didn't involve the use of presidential authority. so we never got beyond our partisan div