I have just seen Hillary Clinton
and her former Yale law professor both in tears at a campaign rally
here in my home state of Connecticut. Her tearful professor said how
proud he was that his former student was likely to become our next President.
Hillary responded in tears.
My own reaction
was of regret that, when I terminated her employment on the Nixon impeachment
staff, I had not reported her unethical practices to the appropriate
bar associations.
Hillary
as I knew her in 1974
At the time
of Watergate I had overall supervisory authority over the House Judiciary
Committee’s Impeachment Inquiry staff that included Hillary Rodham-who
was later to become First Lady in the Clinton White House.
During that
period I kept a private diary of the behind the scenes congressional
activities. My original tape recordings of the diary and other materials
related to the Nixon impeachment provided the basis for my prior book Without Honor and are now available for inspection in
the George Washington University
Library.
After President
Nixon’s resignation a young lawyer, who shared an office with Hillary,
confided in me that he was dismayed by her erroneous legal opinions
and efforts to deny Nixon representation by counsel-as well as an unwillingness to investigate
Nixon. In my diary of August 12, 1974 I noted the following:
John Labovitz apologized to me for the fact that months ago he and Hillary
had lied to me [to conceal rules changes and dilatory tactics.]
Labovitz said, “That came from Yale.” I said, “You mean Burke
Marshall [Senator Ted Kennedy’s chief political strategist, with whom
Hillary regularly consulted in violation of House rules.] Labovitz said,
“Yes.” His apology was significant to me, not because it was a revelation
but because of his contrition.
At that time
Hillary Rodham was 27 years old. She had obtained a position on our
committee staff through the political patronage of her former Yale law
school professor Burke Marshall and Senator Ted Kennedy. Eventually,
because of a number of her unethical practices I decided that I could
not recommend her for any subsequent position of public or private trust.
This is an excerpt of an article that Jerry Zeifman wrote exclusively for Accuracy in Media. The original appears on the AIM web site.
