QUESTIONS LINGER 25 YEARS AFTER WATERGATE

This month marked the 25th anniversary of the Watergate break-in that led to the fall of a president. Most observers agree that the single break-in on June 17, 1972, wouldn't, by itself, have led to the first-ever presidential resignation. Rather, it was President Richard Nixon's ineptness in confronting rogue illegality and his complicity in the subsequent coverup that made his departure a political and practical necessity.

This American regicide has had enduring consequences, not all of them good. On the good side was a demonstration to the world of the extraordinary resiliency of the American system and of this essential point: No man, no matter his exalted status, is above the law.

On the bad side is a marked increase in the adversary posture of a national press corps whose members, many lusting to be the next Woodward and Bernstein, view themselves as bloodhounds perpetually on the scent of corruption, whose entire job is to tear down elected officials. As "ethics" and "campaign finance reform" laws spread like summer's crabgrass, it isn't clear that ethics in public life improve accordingly.

Beyond that endure many mysteries. What if Nixon had taken John Connally's advice to burn the tapes? What of John Dean: Hero or craven self-server? Who is Deep Throat? These endure as Watergate recedes into history.