"The Outrage Was Immediate"

"Only one of the principals of that evening in 1973 is still alive: William Ruckelshaus. Now in his 80s, he runs a foundation in Seattle and is still active in national life. He was then, and still is, a moderate Republican. I wrote to him and asked, 'If you knew, that ultimately, President Nixon would be forced to resign and that future generations of Republican legislators would spend so much time trying to even the score, would you have taken a long view and done what was necessary to protect the president and keep him in office?' I didn’t really expect an answer—but within two days an email came back: 'The answer is no.'"

Michael Goldfarb in Salon connects the Saturday Night Massacre to today.