LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Watergate: Senate Watergate
built 278 days ago
Watergate is the name given to the scandals involving President Richard M. Nixon, members of his administration, and operatives working for Nixon's 1972 reelection organization. The name comes from the Watergate apartment and hotel complex in Washington, D.C., which in 1972 was the location of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). On June 17, 1972, several burglars were caught breaking in to DNC headquarters. The break-in and the subsequent cover-up by Nixon and his aides culminated two years later in the president's resignation. Nixon's departure on August 9, 1974, prevented his impeachment by the Senate. President Gerald R. Ford's pardon of Nixon one month later prevented any criminal charges from being filed against the former president.
Source:
Watergate made careers in the media, legal and political professions, as well as shattered others. It stamped mediocre politicians with the aura of greatness and infected some with the presidential bug. It turned everyone with a press pass into an “investigative” reporter. It turned ambulance chasers into constitutional scholars. Oddly, only one reporter, author-newsman Timothy Crouse, who went on to write the definitive book on the White House press corps, The Boys on the Bus, ever took a comprehensive look at the players on the Senate Watergate Committee.
Source:
During the first two months of 1973, Watergate receded from the public eye. However, on March 23, 1973, Judge John J. Sirica of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia imposed harsh sentences on the Watergate burglars. Sirica, who had presided at the trial, was convinced that the burglars were acting at the direction of others not yet revealed. He told the burglars that he would reduce their sentences if they cooperated with the investigation then being conducted by the U.S. Senate. He ... released a letter from convicted burglar James W. McCord, Jr., who said that pressure had been applied to convince the burglars not to reveal all that they knew, that administration officials had committed perjury, and that higher-ups were involved.
Source:
According to Woodward, the late Sam Ervin, chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee, "called me and asked questions, and his work grew out of the stories that we did." Woodward ... says that after Nixon's resignation, the presiding federal judge, the late John Sirica, told him "flat out" that the Post's stories influenced him to crack down on the Watergate conspirators. "Judges don't decide to get tough in a vacuum," Woodward says. "Senators don't decide to investigate in a vacuum." Both were influenced by the press, Woodward says, because "the process wasn't uncovering the abuses. It's that simple."
Source:
The Senate Watergate Committee presented the American public with the cancer that corrupted the president and his men. These daily episodes provided a litany of corruption undreamed of in the annals of American politics, replacing soap operas on daytime television and turning millions of housewives into political analysts. Whatever their motives, passions, talents—or lack thereof—men like Erwin, Baker, Weicker, Talmadge, Inouye, Gurney and Montoya bought time for the Jaworskis and the Siricas to conduct their own investigations. Once the Watergate grand jury’s secret report was turned over to the House Judiciary Committee, impeachment was only a matter of time.
Source:
Checks and balances - The Watergate scandal demonstrates the complex webof safeguards built into the American Constitution. On the one hand, thePresident is the Head of Government, but does not control the Legislature.Unlike a Westminster Prime Minister, the President cannot dissolve Congress.Whilst the President may nominate members of the Judicial arm, they requireSenate approval. Similarly, the President serves a fixed 4-year term andmay only be removed following an impeachment process that must begin inthe House of Representatives. The President may only be removed from officeby the Senate.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Senate Watergate