th national and personal, both Constitutional and psychological. In less than two years, Nixon had plummeted from the 1972 re-election to a crisis in which his support was rapidly dwindling, down to his immediate family, Bebe Rebozo, a long-time millionaire friend, and a few ardent supporters who urged him to continue the impossible fight against Congress and/or blamed others for Nixon's dilemma. Even his own party and the most powerful Republican leaders in Congress abandoned their support of him when the transcripts of the tapes were released (by order of the Supreme Court) which demonstrated clearly that Nixon had participated actively in the cover-up of the connection between the Watergate burglary and the White House. Whether Nixon knew about the burglary before the fact or not, the revelation of his involvement in the cover-up was the last straw for even most Republicans, including one of the most conservative Republican leaders, Senator Barry Goldwater. The actions of such Republicans in urging Nixon to leave office or be ousted by Congress demonstrated that the crisis was not a matter of partisan differences, but was a true Constitutional crisis brought on by the actions and abuses of the President himself. The almost unanimous conclusion against Nixon in Congress showed how the government recognized that it was a problem which transcended party differences.
The Washington Post website notes on the 25th anniversary of the Watergate burglary (which brought Nixon down four years later) that it had its roots in the July 23, 1970, approval by the President of "a plan for greatly expanding domestic
intelligence gathering by the FBI, CIA and other agencies" (Washington Post, 1997, 1). The plan was rescinded a few days later, but it was a sign of Nixon's paranoia and of his willingness to consider expanding his powers into areas where Constitutional abuse of such powers was more likely if not inevitable.
The White House "pl...