>> for woodward and bernstein it wasn't only that it seemed fishy, there was something just as odd about the white house response. >> the press secretary called it a third rate burglary attempt. >> calling it a third rate burglary, that was the tip-off us that seemed to be nothing third rate about it except they got caught. >> they raised the stakes so high with this third rate burglary nonsense. it was apparent that something here was really rotten. >> nixon assigned his top lieutenants the task of managing the fallout from the break-in. among them, bob haldeman and john ehrlichman would welcome the guardians of the clandestine activities. watergate begins to monopolize more of their time. we know that because nixon had a secret tape recording system in the oval office.