Um, my memory could be wrong

[PCIntern]

But I listened to almost every minute of the Senate Select Committee investigating Watergate and if I recall correctly with the notable exception of Senator Lowell Weicker of Connecticut, the Republicans on that committee asked pointed questions of the witnesses in a manner which tended to exculpate Nixon and his cronies and attempted to cast doubt on the wrongdoing which was as plain as the nose on your face...or Nixon's face. As a college student I distinctly remember thinking that the Republicans including Senator Baker were skeptical that anyone could dream that there was a real criminal conspiracy. It was only later when the public had had enough that Baker and others began to act like real, or semi-real prosecutors.

And one more thing: Nixon was afraid as was the Establishment that all the rest of the misdeeds orchestrated contemporaneously and before we're going to come out if he didn't resign. That's why Ford declared the crisis "over": they didn't want more of the horrorshow to emerge.