"It's not Watergate. It's a political witch hunt, designed to embarrass and discredit the newly re-elected Obama."

"It's a lot of Republican claptrap, another one of those conspiracy theories created out of thin air."

Whoops. That's exactly what Republicans were saying when the FBI and newspaper investigators were closing in on President Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon for covering up the Watergate break-in by his operatives. Republican defenders of Nixon described it as merely a third-rate burglary and said investigating it would be a waste of time because nothing illegal or untoward happened.