Page "Watergate scandal" Paragraph 38

Initially, Nixon was given a positive reaction for his speech.

As people read the transcripts over the next couple of weeks, however, former supporters among the public, media and political community called for Nixon's resignation or impeachment.

Vice President Gerald Ford said, " While it may be easy to delete characterization from the printed page, we cannot delete characterization from people's minds with a wave of the hand.

" The Senate Republican Leader Hugh Scott said the transcripts revealed a " deplorable, disgusting, shabby, and immoral " performance on the part of the President and his former aides.

The House Republican Leader John Jacob Rhodes agreed with Scott, and Rhodes recommended that if Nixon's position continued to deteriorate, he " ought to consider resigning as a possible option.

" The editors of the newspaper The Chicago Tribune, a publication that had supported Nixon, wrote, " 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 ".

The Providence Journal wrote, " Reading the transcripts is an emetic experience ;" " One comes away feeling unclean.

" This newspaper continued, that, while the transcripts may not have revealed an indictable offense, they showed Nixon contemptuous of the United States, its institutions, and its people.

According to Time magazine, the Republican Party leaders in the Western United States felt that while there remained a significant number of Nixon loyalists in the party, the majority believed that Nixon should step down as quickly as possible.

They were disturbed by the bad language and the coarse, vindictive tone of the conversations in the transcripts.