I actually liked Lieberman in 2000, though I admit I didn't care for his whiny voice and still don't. I had a lot of respect for him, with one hiccup when he joined the Gore ticket. I forget now what it was, but I thought he compromised himself on some issue in order to get the VP slot. I would have liked to be able to vote for a Cheney-Lieberman ticket that year. I still hold them both in high regard, and I have been pleasantly surprised at how good a job Bush has done.
I was fairly young when Nixon was President and did not follow that story and still don't really have a good understanding of what it was all about. No, I don't think that just because he was a Republican that he was above the law. I suspect he was guilty of some bad stuff. I also suspect that the left was guilty of blowing things out of proportion. But, like I said, I've never really read up on that part of our history.
You really should. By doing so, you will have a better appreciation for the issues that divide the Republican Party.
For the record, I was a "Goldwater Republican" before I could vote. It was during Nixon's term in office when I began to have serious reservations about Republicans' sincerety when they say they want to roll back the welfare state, reduce the size of government, etc.
These days, George Will calls Nixon a "conservative."
Nixon was no conservative, either in his domestic policy or in his disastrous foreign policy. It was the Republicans' good fortune to have Jimmuh Cawtah in the White House when Ronald Reagan ran in 1980 or the Nixon legacy would have probably kept Democrats in power long after that. Nixon's misdeeds, miscalculations, and abuses of presidential power were just that significant.