President Ford had acted quickly in issuing a general pardon to his predecessor,

and some, like Rep. Waldie, were incensed, believing that this "has obscured ... the extent of his guilt." For Rep. Railsback--who had served with Rep. Waldie on the House Judiciary Committee, which had drawn up the articles of impeachment against Mr. Nixon--"I don't know what good the country derives from some kind of an inquisition of a former President who has been toppled from the highest to the lowest." In the course of this heated discussion, we get Watergate specifics, comparisons to past, unpunished Presidents (not least, Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt), questions about the FBI and CIA, and much else.