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4.2.12
WC: 191694

Now, I don't leap from the Oval Office on a Saturday afternoon to Auschwitz, but there are similarities when the rule of law doesn't obtain, or where you have one law for the powerful and one for the nonaristocratic.

He did not give me an opportunity to respond to his absurd invocation of Auschwitz. But I did insist on responding when Congressman Barr contrasted me with the “real America” and how “the real America views these matters.” The following heated exchange then took place:

MR. DERSHOWITZ: Can I respond, 30 seconds, to what I perceive to have been a personal attack? First of all, whenever I hear the word "real Americans," that sounds to me like a codeword for racism -- a code word for bigotry, a codeword --

REP. BARR: That's absurd, professor, you ought to be ashamed. That is the silliest thing I have ever heard --

MR. DERSHOWITZ: When I hear you describe me as something other than a real American -- shame on you. We may have a disagreement about the merits of these issues, but I would no more impugn your Americanism than you should impugn mine, sir.

REP. BARR: You're being silly, professor. You are being absolutely silly.

MR. HIGGINBOTHAM: May I respond, Mr. Chairman?

REP. HYDE: Yes, indeed -- far be it from me to not have anyone respond. Go right ahead.

MR. HIGGINBOTHAM: I take profound disagreement with Congressman Barr's categorization of the "real America," which he apparently understands with such fine discernment, and those of us who teach at universities are oblivious. You know we have students, and they teach us something. And my father was a laborer. My mother was a domestic. And I climbed up the ladder, and I did not come to where I am through some magical wand. So t hat I am willing to match you any hour any day in terms of the perception of the "real American."

Not all the Congressmen were angered by my aggressive testimony. This is how Congressman Rogan summarized his views:

I guess, in fairness, Professor Dershowitz, I have to single you out just for one moment, because I want to assure you that you and I have no hard feelings between ourselves. I know that you raised a few hackles here with some of my colleagues with controversial comments, but I want you to know I personally found them to be very therapeutic, because up till now the only excuse I had for not having attended Harvard Law School was my grade-point average. (Laughter.) So you've given me a little different perspective.

Following my testimony, I worked closely with the president’s legal team both on the impeachment and on the Starr investigation. One summer day, during the impeachment crisis, the

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