A Republican With Values: Pete McCloskey's Run For Congress

There is no equivocation in McCloskey's answer as to why he's running.

"Primarily it was the corruption," he says. "I won't say (Pombo) is dishonest, but he's at the very edge of ethics. And ethics in the law for judges and politicians is: Is it perceived by the public to cast discredit on the institution?"

In 1971, McCloskey earned the ire of his party by calling for President Richard Nixon's impeachment for abuse of war powers. The next year, McCloskey ran against Nixon. McCloskey quit the race after a few months to seek re-election to Congress and received the vote of one delegate to Nixon's 1,347 at the 1972 Republican convention.

"He's willing to confront his own party and take on impossible challenges," said former Democrat Rep. Jerry Waldie, who accompanied McCloskey on a 1971 fact-finding trip to Vietnam that sparked McCloskey's opposition to the war.

Full Article, San Francisco Chronicle