Jan. 6 Capitol assault requires serious national airing

If the Jan. 6 Capitol assault was a movie, would Vice President Mike Pence — or Harrison Ford — confront the mob and say, “You’re not going to hang anybody. We have a Constitutional responsibility to certify the election, and that’s what we’re going to do today.”

Would House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — or Helen Hunt — respond to the chants of her whereabouts by stepping out and saying, “I’m right here! Donald Trump lost and you need to go home!”

Of course, in real life, there didn’t seem to be a Jimmy Stewart in the mob saying, “Let’s not do this.” Just an hourslong mob assault with a defiant “We’re doing it for the country” attitude that ended in national regret.

That’s why we need the current congressional investigation of the Capitol assault. There are lots of questions to be answered — answers that the public should want to know.

When House Republican leadership recommended Urbana native Rep. Jim Jordan for the committee, they were just trying to throw sand in the gears. Some Republicans object that the committee will make Republicans look bad. Well, I’m a Republican and I say, “So what?” Sometimes you just have to take your medicine and vow to do better next time. Everything is not about partisan political talking points.

I was a college boy, a Nixon man, when the Senate and House investigated the Watergate scandal after President Richard Nixon’s reelection in 1972.

We learned a lot watching the wall-to-wall coverage of the special seven-member Senate committee chaired by Sen. Sam Ervin of North Carolina. There was no cable TV then, just three networks, and it was appointment television. Republican Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee wondered, “What did Nixon know, and when did he know it?”

White House deputy assistant Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of a secret taping system in the Oval Office — a rare instance of an answer the questioners didn’t know was coming. White House counsel John Dean testified to a Watergate cover-up — testimony that ended up landing him in jail. But, he told the truth — and for millions of supporters, the sheen was off of Nixon.

The Senate hearings dovetailed with the House Judiciary Committee, 38 members strong, including Ohioans John Seiberling and Delbert Latta — more appointment TV as they discussed potential articles of impeachment in May of 1974.

Also among the committee members was Fr. Robert Drinan of Massachusetts, a Catholic priest who was later ordered out of politics by Pope John Paul II, who told him he could either be a priest or a congressman, but not both.

William Cohen, future senator from Maine who later served as U.S. Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton, was among a number of Republicans on the committee who supported impeachment charges against Nixon. The beleaguered president saw the handwriting on the wall and resigned in August of 1974.

The bottom line is — some watershed moments in our country require a serious public airing. The Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol certainly qualifies.