>>9544
Fun fact: the "Nixon had people killed" meme every late night talk show comedian used for 20+ years, the punchline of every third or fourth sketch on Saturday Night Live for decades, got really popular and widespread because no one anywhere was actually afraid of Richard Nixon.
Frank Church only dared to bring up LBJ's very real, very tangible, very well documented abuses of power because Lyndon Johnson died in 1973. Everybody in Washington was absolutely terrified of Lyndon Johnson. His spiteful temperament, thin skin, and the contempt with which he regarded the law were very well known. His reach was long and displeasing him could and did end careers. It could also get you audited by the IRS. Blackmail was too subtle and undignified for ol' LBJ. He was not above having the FBI, and you may recall that he had J. Edgar Hoover in his pocket, collate the data from all those illegal wiretap records and illegal dossiers and go on a legal fishing expedition. LBJ really liked fear. And because he controlled the System he had no fear of it.
Nixon didn't have anyone or anything much in his pocket. Everyone knew it and nobody was afraid of him. This is why he and his whole administration got dragged through one legal knothole after another. The whole Watergate scandal stems from a 1972 incident in which G. Gordon Liddy, then a relatively minor FBI functionary, led an unofficial dirty-tricks team that bugge