Ex-US Sen. Howard Baker Jr. Dies [View all]
Source: ABC News
Former Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr., a moderate Republican known as the politician who inquired what President Richard Nixon knew during the 1973 Senate Watergate hearings, has died. He was 88.
Baker, who served as U.S. ambassador to Japan from 2001 until early 2005, died Thursday at his home, according to an email distributed at the law firm where Baker was senior counsel. He died as a result of complications from a stroke suffered Saturday, the email said.
The scion of a political family, Baker served 18 years in the Senate, winning widespread respect from Republicans and Democrats alike and rising to the post of majority leader.
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But it was his instantly famous question — "What did the president know and when did he know it?" — that made him an enduring household name. It instantly focused the nation's attention on the cover-up that perhaps more than the Watergate break-in itself eventually brought down Nixon's presidency.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-sen-howard-baker-jr-dies-24318528
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