40 years after Watergate, impeachment loses its weight

So it's been 40 years since President Nixon resigned as the Watergate scandal exploded in the summer of 1974. I was 3 at the time, so I wasn't paying much attention.

On Friday I was driving to work, listening to longtime National Public Radio reporter and host Linda Wertheimer talk about that long ago August. She was a young reporter watching the extraordinary events unfold.

One moment caught me by surprise.

She played audio of the House Judiciary Committee roll call on the first article of impeachment. When the final 'aye” vote was cast by Chairman Peter Rodino Jr., a Democrat from New Jersey, his voice cracked with emotion.

'Peter Rodino was in tears,” Wertheimer said. 'And he wasn't the only one. I mean, there were people sitting around the room. There were staff people, other members of Congress, members of the past, who were crying because this was such a dramatic moment and they were frightened by what they were doing and couldn't see any way not to do it.”

So here was this liberal Jersey Democrat, among others, crying at the prospect of removing a Republican president. Clearly, this was serious, scary business. Over time, the rawness of those emotions have faded from our collective memory. Those few seconds of archived audio briefly retrieved them.

'Everybody brushed by history as we have been now owes it to himself and to us all to share in working out repairs so no one in our system has to live through this again,” read The Gazette's editorial on the day Nixon left office.

What a departure from our current state of political affairs. Impeachment now carries no more weight than any other overheated talking point or fundraising appeal. A few agitated Republicans looking for attention have floated the idea of impeaching President Obama. Democrats eager to paint Republicans as extremists have gleefully latched on to these threats to motivate their own loyalists.

Maybe it was President Clinton's impeachment over a sex scandal that sapped the word of its solemn weight. But the huge burden of responsibility for protecting an important public institution such as the presidency, the duty that brought Rodino and others to tears, seems as dated now as their 70s neckties.

Perhaps it's got something to do with all the times we've been told since then that our government is 'them,” not 'us,” a cynical invitation for detachment affording us the luxury of apathy and outrage without responsibility. Throw in extreme partisan acrimony and piles of unbridled campaign cash, and the disconnect between government and governed becomes a chasm.

So, really, who cares if Congress seeks to delegitimize a presidency, or if the president issues sweeping executive orders that sidestep the Congress? Winning the game, heck, the news cycle, is all that matters. Besides, these institutions are worthy of respect only if my side controls them. Otherwise, grab the sledgehammers.

It's no surprise that a recent poll showed a growing number of Americans think Watergate was 'just politics.” What else is there?

l Staff Columnist Todd Dorman appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com.