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The Democratic leaders may well have been sincere in their statements against resignation, though in private they did not convincingly deny that they would be greatly relieved if Nixon did step down. In fact, House leaders even ordered staff members to examine resignation's possible financial benefits to Nixon. They found that if he were removed from office by conviction in the Senate, he would get a pension of only about $12,000 a year, due to him because of his 18 years' Government service as a Naval officer, Congressman and Vice President. If he left voluntarily, he would also get the normal presidential pension of $60,000 a year, plus up to $96,000 annually to maintain a staff and office. But the overt Democratic strategy has been to act as statesmen, avoid obvious partisanship and leave talk of resignation to the Republicans.
G.O.P. leaders, however, were having no part of it. Although none defended Nixon's conduct, they clearly had decided against asking Nixon to resign despite their outrage over the tawdry portrait of his presidency revealed by the transcripts. Tennessee Senator William Brock, chairman of the Republican Senate Campaign Committee, said that Nixon has a right to a Senate trial "if he wants it, which he seems to." Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania added: "I think our nation is strong enough to withstand the functioning of its own Constitution." The Republican leaders doubtless also had in mind the possibility that Nixon could be acquitted. White House Speechwriter Patrick Buchanan warned that if Republicans forced Nixon out of office and he were later found to be innocent of wrongdoing, it "would be close to fatal for the Republican Party."
Pleading Guilty. As the pressure for resignation eased, Nixon's men kept walking into Washington courtrooms to face justice. Dwight L. Chapin, 33, once the President's appointments secretary, was given a term of 10 to 30 months for lying to a federal grand jury about his role in directing Donald Segretti, the political dirty trickster of Nixon's 1972 campaign. Chapin said that he would appeal his case to the Supreme Court if need be. (Chapin is the fifth former White House aide or consultant to be sentenced to jail. Three others—John W. Dean III, Frederick LaRue and Jeb Stuart Magruder—have pleaded guilty to taking part in the Watergate cover-up and are awaiting sentencing.
A day later Richard Kleindienst, 50, the former U.S. Attorney General, pleaded guilty to the charge of a misdemeanor stemming from his confirmation hearings, which were conducted by the Senate Judiciary Committee. In effect Kleindienst admitted that he had not been completely candid when he testified that as Deputy Attorney General, he had not been pressured by the White House to drop an antitrust case against the International Telephone and Telegraph Corp., which was to pledge up to $400,000 to the G.O.P. In fact, the President himself had given Kleindienst such an order (which Kleindienst refused to carry out), saying: "You son of a bitch, don't you understand the English language?"