WATERGATE LEFT LEGACY OF DISTRUST IN GOVERNMENT

The furor over Watergate died long ago, buried in the pages of history.

But the scandal that toppled President Nixon left behind a legacy of public distrust of government and its leaders, political experts and politicians say.

"Watergate has now become an adjective to describe whatever is wrong with government," said Dr. Peter Bergerson, who chairs the political science department at Southeast Missouri State University.

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson was in her early 20s when the Watergate scandal surfaced.

"I think one of the negatives that came out of Watergate was the distrust on the part of the American people for politicians, and I don't think that has ever gone away," she said Monday.

On the positive side, Watergate led to campaign finance reform, Emerson said.

Twenty-five years ago today, five men were caught burglarizing the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate building. It was the beginning of a scandal that ended with Nixon's resignation on Aug. 9, 1974 and prison terms for 25 of Nixon's henchmen.

Nixon was the only president ever to resign his office.

Bergerson said Watergate was part of a series of defining events for a generation of "shell-shocked" Americans. The events included the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War, he said.

John Blue remembers being called a traitor when he editorialized against President Nixon at the height of the Watergate controversy.

But Blue, then editor of the Southeast Missourian, mirrored the views of many who lost faith in Nixon over the Watergate crisis.

Cape Girardeau's daily newspaper was a longtime supporter of Nixon.

"But the time has now come, we are convinced, for our charity to cease," he wrote in an editorial published May 12, 1974.

"Mr. Nixon has emerged through the daily outpouring of fresh information as a man small in personality, lacking in personal stature and shrunken in the respect of men and women who maintain their own unimpeachable character," Blue wrote.

"Through the exchange of favors for political contributions, the income tax maze, lavish use of federal funds for king-like use, the expenditures on his homes in Florida and California, the tapes -those incredible tapes -- missing tapes and segments, the Saturday Night Massacre, the twisting and turning and evasion, misleading televised reports to the nation -- through it all, the president shrinks in public estimation," wrote Blue.

He concluded that impeachment proceedings should proceed unless Nixon resigned from office.

For Blue, there is an important message behind the faded headlines of Watergate.

"Watergate showed that even the president of the United States can be brought to justice," the retired editor said Monday.

History professor Dr. J. Christopher Schnell said Watergate made the news media more powerful and weakened the power of the presidency.

"You've got kind of a perennial shark feed now in Washington," said Schnell. The mainstream news media has become more like the National Enquirer in how it covers the news, he said.

The whole character of society has declined, said Schnell, who teaches at Southeast.

People no longer expect their political leaders to have high standards, he said.

Many of the nation's political leaders are "political hacks," said Schnell. "The most you can hope for is honesty, and that is rare."

Schnell sees similarities between the Nixon White House and the Clinton presidency.

"Both Nixon and Clinton have a real problem telling the truth," said Schnell.

Clinton has been beset by a series of scandals from Whitewater to the sexual harassment charges of Paula Jones.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in 1974 that Nixon had to turn over White House tapes that showed he had approved of a cover-up and efforts to derail an FBI investigation of the Watergate affair.

Recently, the high court ruled unanimously that Paula Jones could proceed with her sexual-harassment lawsuit against President Clinton.

The latest ruling again makes clear that the president isn't above the law, Schnell said.

Schnell said Clinton comes across as a friendly person. Nixon came across as unfriendly.

"Nixon had a bad personality," said Schnell. "He needed to be more of a human being."

Nixon died on April 22, 1994.