Charles P. Pierce: John Doar, 1921-2014

Anyone who followed the Watergate saga knows that Richard Nixon, history's yard waste and a criminal president, was done in by the monotones. First, there was John Dean before the committee chaired by Sam Ervin, his voice never rising or falling, almost unnaturally without affect, a scapegoat turned lethal, explaining at length why the people in the White House needed a scapegoat in the first place. There was no anger in his presentation. Just one damning fact after another after another, over and over again. The second monotone appeared in July of 1974. It belonged to a lawyer named John Doar. It cut out Richard Nixon's heart and ate it in the marketplace.

For several weeks, the Republicans in the House of Representatives, who were seeking to pull Nixon's chestnuts out of his own self-immolating fire, were leaning on Doar, the counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, to produce his case so they could consider articles of impeachment against the president. Even Democratic members of the House were leaning on Majority Leader Tip O'Neill, who in turn was leaning on committee chairman Peter Rodino, who in turn was leaning on Doar and his staff. Knowing that, ultimately, Rodino had his back just as O'Neill had Rodino's, Doar sent word back up the chain of command to tell the Republican water-haulers and the impatient and nervous Democrats to pound sand. Doar would deliver his report when it was ready, and not before. He was not a nervous fellow, this John Doar. Long before he ever came to Congress, he had been threatened by experts.