A sampler of editorials and columns last week from newspapers calling, for the first time, for Nixon's resignation or impeachment:
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
We saw the public man in his first administration, and we were impressed. Now in about 300,000 words we have seen the private man, and we are appalled.
He is humorless to the point of being inhumane. He is devious. He is vacillating. He is profane. He is willing to be led. He displays dismaying gaps in knowledge. He is suspicious of his staff. His loyalty is minimal. His greatest concern is to create a record that will save him and his administration. The high dedication to grand principles that Americans have a right to expect from a President is missing from the transcript record.
. . . The evidence against Mr. Nixon is in his own words, made public at his own direction. There can no longer be a charge that he was railroaded out of office by vengeful Democrats or a hostile press. The fundamental questions have been answered. Filling in the gaps in the transcripts can only make the case against the President stronger.
It is saddening and hard to believe that for the first time in our history it is better that the President leave office than to fight and keep it. But things have reached such a state that Mr. Nixon's departure, one way or another, is the best course for the Presidency, the country, and the free world.
OMAHA WORLD-HERALD
The thrust of the 1,308 pages of the transcript is that the President was trying to save his own skin and would consider almost any option, however bizarre, if it would help him do that.
Some will ask what other Presidents would have done under similar circumstances. They will say that dirty tricks and Watergate break-ins and cover-ups are just politics. To which we would reply:
If the revolting picture of conniving and deception revealed by the White House tapes is just politics as practiced in the Oval Office of the President of the United States, it is time for the present occupant to vacate that office.
The President should resign.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
We said in this space last November that there was growing evidence to warrant the President's impeachment. But we did not then believe it was sufficient.
Since then there have been many new and damaging revelations involving Mr. Nixon, including the partial transcripts of presidential conversations [with aides] issued by the White House on April 30 . . .
The transcripts show that [the President's] strategy was:
—To "contain" the scandal by limiting the scope and frustrating the evidentiary rights of investigations. . .
—To "buy time" and "reduce our losses" by keeping his associates from testifying under dubious claims of executive privilege and national security.
—To "keep the cap on the bottle" by encouraging his associates to tell no more of the truth than they had to in public statements or informal testimony.
—To contrive "salable" public relations explanations for his own failure to expose the guilty even when the evidence of their complicity was known to him.
Justice for the President and for the Nation now requires his impeachment.
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER