I think it was the "we tortured some folks" moment

[Hortensis]

117. What happened here was opportunity cost.

Think about it. Democrats are progressives. We build, improve, advance wellbeing through action. Diverting what political capital we had in those days (not nearly enough) from the task of building to attempting to prosecute crimes on the other side would have actually promoted the conservative end games -- to block and destroy progressive action and to conquer the electorate through division.

Note that last. Many/most Americans shamefully supported -- and still support -- what they did, or didn't know what to think, or just knew they wanted a strong defense and that was Bush (not!). The cost to the Democratic Party of removing them from office would have been extremely high.

If we had bit the bullet and sent Nixon and Reagan to prison, as of course we should have, we would not have had W and Cheney, but although no one should be above the law -- and especially high public officians, it's impossible to count what the cost would have been back then. Of course, decades later we ended up bitterly divided anyway...