My no answer is based on the observations that I've made all my life, that those at the top rarely suffer for their acts as much as mid-level and low-lever players.

A teacher or vice principal of principal, for example, will lose a job while the superintendent will end up taking early retirement with full benefits.

when high level officials could be shamed and did resign or were punished for misdeeds in office. That all changed after Ford and his smarmy our-long-national-nightmare-is-over schtick. After that, after Iran-Contra (and the pardons), after the S&L thing, after Iraq, after Abu Ghraib, after impeachment-is-off-the-table, after the Wall Street crash, after looking-forward-and-not-back, everybody knows now that there is no accountability, there are no (bad) consequences.

Remember Spiro Agnew? He was forced to quit--can you imagine Darth Cheney stepping down for mere corruption? War crimes weren't enough. Can you imagine (conservative) Supreme Court Justices recusing themselves because of the mere appearance of impropriety? Me neither.

Republicans went into the Nixon investigations/hearings sure that there was no "there" there, and the hearings would prove it. The fact that the House Judiciary committee voted to impeach on 3 different articles and not on a straight party-line vote meant RMN was done for. He got out while the going was good, the coward (runs in the party). I was horrified when Ford pardoned the sonuvabitch even before any charges could be brought. Looking back it was a death knell for the Rule of Law.

because there were enough votes in the House to impeach him and enough votes in the Senate to remove him.

a group of senators and representatives for the Republican party came to him and told the votes for conviction were not there to fight of impeachment. In fact one account I read there were only 11 senators that would vote against conviction. He didn't want to lose that big fat pension and the perks of the being an ex-president.

They would have co-operated with Dems to remove him from office.

Republicans told him he had about 10-15 votes for acquittal.

Is water wet?

defecate in deciduous environments?

He would have been impeached and would have been convicted in the Senate on at least the first bill of impeachment. The vote in the Senate would not have been close. He resigned because he knew his presidency was doomed.

Anybody saying otherwise was not paying attention at the time.

The truth coming out would have ended the Republican Party instantly. That's why Ford pardoned the criminal of all crimes, known and unknown.

The House Judiciary Committee passed three articles recommending his impeachment even before the smoking gun tape was released. Once it was, his support all but disappeared, even his staunch ally Charles Wiggins would not longer defend him.

I remember following the impeachment hearings very very closely and I had no doubt that Nixon was going to be convicted by the Senate

to one (the impeachment) is definitely and two (conviction) is most probably.

You might almost be tempted to think kindly of Nixon.

How screwed up is that!

from pundits. I call BS on that. It's THERE for a reason. For assholes like Nixon. Not for good but flawed Presidents like Clinton. The whole Clinton charade was shameful and should be recorded in the history books as so. Just like the Johnson impeachment trial. Johnson was a drunk and a buffoon but impeachable ? No.

I think the whole sturm und drang over impeachment is BS. Bare minimum, it clears the air and allows for an up or down vote on a President. So far no one's been convicted. I really wish we had convicted that POS Nixon. Ford turned me off to politics for many many years by his corrupt action.

eta: If the asshole R party tries to impeach PBO, it will have its ass handed to it just like after the Clinton impeachment debacle.

The vote would have been overwhelmingly in favor of conviction in the Senate.

He was a goner.

Nixon rose from the dead more times than Dracula and the Mummy put together! In 1978, his memoirs were a bestseller and he was being treated as an 'elder statesman., making regular appearances on TV and being invited to the White House in 1979. He was invited to join other former presidents for the funeral of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat.

I was so "radical" back in 1974 that I wanted him impeached and convicted, driven from office, indicted and convicted for his crimes, and put in jail.

The whole "the country can't stand to see a past President in jail" meme needs to die. It's BS. Other countries do it, why not us ?

in a criminal court of law. I think once he was out of office the momentum to go much farther would have dissipated. Even I was starting to feel sorry for the old bastard.

That impeachment and conviction were foregone conclusions, and that given the evidence presented he would also be an "aye" vote to convict. That was considered a tipping point, as far as Nixon finally getting a grip on what his (zero) chances for political survival were.

All the evidence was definitely there. And Nixon took the easy way out by quitting.

That said -- and I've been flamed for saying so -- his resignation, Ford's assumption of the office, and Ford's subsequent pardon saved this country a lot of heartburn. We needed to move on. Watergate had taken enough time and energy, and it was a fight not worth continuing, given what else was going on at that time.

It won't be the first time someone's disagreed with me on this.