Most major newspapers across the nation are calling for President Nixon's resignation or a speeding up of the impeachment process for the good of the country following disclosure of Nixon's own involvement in the Watergate cover-up.
But the New York Times came out Wednesday in support of the President's present position that he not resign.
The Times said it saw "considerable merit in the President's attitude...that he intends to 'allow the Constitution to be the overriding factor.'"
"To accept this statement as a guilty plea and suggest that resignation would now close the book on Watergate would leave too many loose ends, too many questions unresolved," the Times said.
"It would do nothing to inhibit subsequent fostering of the myth of a President hounded out of office by his political enemies. Doubts could be created whether the President would actually have been convicted in an impeachment trial, whether his departure from office was really justified by the facts."
The Los Angeles Times, calling for his resignation, said that in any event he will be impeached and convicted.
"He should resign immediately," the Times said. "There is no question that he will be impeached. His admissions on Monday assure his conviction in the Senate. To resign is to achieve the purpose of impeachment while sparing the nation more weeks of his inevitably uncertain leadership."
Other editorial statements:
Detroit Free Press: "There should be little doubt left any more that he has...committed offenses for which he should be impeached and removed from office."
Chicago Tribune: "Every day that Mr. Nixon remains in his office is a day's delay in meeting the many urgent problems that face the country."
Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald-Journal: "Resignation would be his most heroic act. The nation's preoccupation with Watergate must end."
Boston Herald American: "...Richard M. Nixon has been his own worst enemy in the Watergate debacle. He would not be in his precarious position today if he had told the American public the truth long ago, instead of trying to outsmart his critics.
"We will not presume to judge this man whose noble dream was a peaceful world, but whose feet have been mired in the mud of supposedly practical politics. That is the duty of the other politicians in Congress. Let them judge honestly, in conscience, and with a maximum of compassion."
New York Daily News: "Three courses are open to the President. He can resign. He can step aside...He can fight impeachment through the House and Senate...Everybody else, almost, is telling the President what he should or should not do next. We believe the next move is Mr. Nixon's and Mr. Nixon's alone."