The ANNOTICO Report

Whenever, an  Italian American Organizations next meeting, a reading of
Peter Rodino's accomplishments are worthy, along with a moment of silence.

No ethnicity could claim a finer human being, and one so untarnished by
politics.

This article mostly chronicles the "nice" down to earth character of Peter
Rodino. Who could match it?
It also highlights the incredible degree of diplomacy he exhibited during
the Nixon Impeachment hearings. Who else could have done it?

PETER RODINO'S SECRET. "HE DIDN'T BACK AWAY"
Pupil talked history with man who made it

The Star Ledger
New Jersey
Tom Moran
Friday, May 13, 2005

Peter Rodino was celebrating his 95th birthday with a few friends at home
last year when the phone rang.

It was Christina Rodriguez, a sixth-grader from Secaucus, a girl Rodino had
never met.

Christina, it seems, needed help on a term paper she was writing about
President Richard Nixon and the Watergate crisis.

She knew that Rodino was a hero of this story, and when her mother told her
that the great man lived nearby, Christina decided to make her move.

"I was a little embarrassed to disturb him," she says.

But Rodino put her at ease right away. Don't worry about the guests, he
said, they can entertain themselves. And no, she didn't have to call back
another time.

So began a heartfelt conversation between the congressman and the little
girl. It lasted 45 minutes.

"He felt scared when he started out in politics because he was Italian and
some people thought he was in the Mafia," Christina says. "And since he was
raised in Newark, some people thought he wouldn't be smart enough.

"But he didn't let other people bring him down. He didn't back away. It was
like my mother tells me: When you have a chance to shine, you try your
best."

If there is a better epitaph for Rodino, an American icon who died Saturday
at his West Orange home, no scholar has yet written it.

Rodino grew up in Newark's North Ward, the son of a carpenter who
immigrated from Italy. He attended public schools, and after fighting the
Nazis in North Africa, he came home and worked his way through law school
at night.

Elected to Congress in 1948, he made little impression. He was no genius,
he was no charmer. He was a short and stocky guy, his voice thin and raspy,
with a Jersey accent.

When he became chairman of the Judiciary Committee after 24 years in
Congress, the only piece of legislation bearing his name was one
establishing Christopher Columbus' birthday as a national holiday.

But Nixon, at least, saw Rodino as a serious threat.

Soon after the committee took up Watergate, White House officials whispered
to reporters that Rodino had links to the Mafia.

"All of a sudden I'm getting calls from the national press asking me if
this is true," says Herb Stern, then the U.S. attorney for Newark.

Rodino represented Newark in the days when the Mafia essentially ran the
city through the good offices of Mayor Hugh Addonizio, who eventually was
jailed on extortion charges.

Rodino was close to Addonizio, and shared an apartment with him in
Washington when the two were young congressmen.

But Rodino was clean. And Stern was so outraged by the smear that he
denounced it publicly, just as the Watergate hearings began.

"Prosecutors don't customarily make public statements like that," Stern
says. "But this was outrageous. I can tell you we never had a single
allegation against Peter Rodino. He was immaculate."

It was 1974, and Rodino was about to make history. Democrats controlled
Congress at the time, but Rodino knew that his committee would have to
conduct itself with meticulous fairness if the nation were to accept its
verdict.

He appointed a Republican as special counsel to the committee. He granted
access to Nixon's personal attorney, over Democratic objections. He yielded
to Republicans on almost every procedural point, and asked them to draft
the articles of impeachment. His tone was solemn, not combative.

And in the end, the kid from Newark proved he was smart enough after all.
Americans were convinced that the president had to go. And the committee's
vote to impeach was overwhelming and bipartisan. Nixon resigned 10 days
later.

Christina talked to Rodino about that moment. What was his reaction? How
did he feel when he whacked his gavel that day after voting to impeach a
president for the first time in a century?

"He told me he called his wife, and he cried," Christina says. "He felt
very sad for the country."

Rodino never made such big news again. He remained in Congress until 1988,
when he stepped down in the face of a potent primary challenge from Donald
Payne, who still holds the seat today.

The district had been reconfigured by court order in 1972, with the
explicit goal of making it easier for an African-American candidate to win
election. But after Watergate, Rodino was a hero.

"African-Americans did not want to see him leave," Payne says. "He was on
the right side of every issue. Our notion was they should move Peter to the
11th District, which didn't have a heavy African-American presence. We
thought we'd have the best of both worlds."

But that didn't work, and in the end Rodino wouldn't budge until he was
pushed. Faced with a third primary challenge from Payne, he dropped out of
the race.

Rodino didn't discuss any of that with Christina. But he did teach her
something about politics that she will never forget.

She learned that stereotypes about politicians can be wrong. Some are
decent and honorable people.

And some will go out of their way to make time for a sixth-grader with an
unusual eagerness to learn.

"You can't judge them all," Christina says. "He was so nice. This was such
an honor."

Tom Moran's column appears Wednesdays and Fridays. He may be reached at
tmoran@starledger.com or (973) 392-1823.

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