In the words of those who have passed: 2017, PART 2 by Egantx7

Politician, in 2002 interview with the Harvard Law Bulletin

I was the first Republican in the House to call for [Nixon’s] resignation. It was in that spirit against old ideas and old and discredited party leaders that I think made me kind of position myself as an avatar of the more futuristic thinking that I wanted to see the Republican Party embrace ... I was almost destined to make the decision, which I did in 1980, that rather than continue to fight a local war with right-wing conservatives, I would bring my broader viewpoint on where the Republican Party should be positioning itself as we entered the decade of the ’80s.