Soon after I returned to private practice, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger called me one day.

The last eight years have created a lot of deep-seated hostility. People take political decisions very personally, and today there is a constant, ongoing attack, with one side or the other being maligned.

It is hard for people outside the White House to understand the constant daily problems and issues that come up that require the president's attention, but he can not let himself get too personally involved.

Soon after I returned to private practice, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger called me one day.

It was frightening because it was the first time I had gotten a sense of how serious the problem was. It became clear from his notes that he felt the president himself was involved.

It became evident to me that there was a very serious political element at work. I know that the term impeachment was bandied about. I do not believe, however, that the word was used with the ferocity it was more recently or that it was in the Nixon years.

One regret I have is that I did not learn more about what was happening very early, so that I could have tried to stop people from engaging in illegal activities.