The left also never got over Nixon’s nailing of Alger Hiss during the HUAC days. It became a religious tenet to them to despise and punish Nixon for this(perhaps more for that than for Watergate or Vietnam) despite his being relatively liberal for a Republican.
The Hiss indictment caused the left to have a hissy fit over Nixon which continues to this day and was the blueprint for Reagan and Bush derangement syndrome as well.