Capitol Issues

Grand Rapids is a pleasant, solid, unpretentious community —rather like the furniture made there. It also is the cause of a “new morality.” No, not the “post-Watergate political morality,” to which novelist Spiro Agnew once referred. The new morality now in vogue is the “post-Grand Rapids political morality.” Because the good burghers of Grand Rapids and environs did what they did, a lot of Republican congressmen from around the Republic are finding that the unthinkable is suddenly thinkable. Republicans who hitherto had not given serious consideration to sending Mr. Nixon to an impeachment trial in the Senate are now seriously considering it.

Obviously honorable men and women of good will can and do honestly disagree about what constitutes an impeachable offense. Obviously no one— not even a congressman—can believe that a President should be impeached because his continued presence in office threatens to bring disaster upon his party in the next election. But Mr. Nixon’s continued presence in office promises to do just that, and that may get him impeached.

About the Author

George F. Will

George F. Will has been a columnist, beginning with National Review, since 1973.

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Grand Rapids is a pleasant, solid, unpretentious community —rather like the furniture made there. It also is the cause of a “new morality.” No, not the “post-Watergate political morality,” to which novelist Spiro Agnew once referred. The new morality now in vogue is the “post-Grand Rapids political morality.” Because the good burghers of Grand Rapids and environs did what they did, a lot of Republican congressmen from around the Republic are finding that the unthinkable is suddenly thinkable. Republicans who hitherto had not given serious consideration to sending Mr. Nixon to an impeachment trial in the Senate are now seriously considering it.

Obviously honorable men and women of good will can and do honestly disagree about what constitutes an impeachable offense. Obviously no one— not even a congressman—can believe that a President should be impeached because his continued presence in office threatens to bring disaster upon his party in the next election. But Mr. Nixon’s continued presence in office promises to do just that, and that may get him impeached.