Nope. Doesn't smoke. Never has.
Posted on 02/13/2005 10:38:48 PM PST by Destro
Interest in Deep Throat increases on report he is ill
By BILL STRAUB
Scripps Howard News Service
February 11, 2005
WASHINGTON - He's back.
At least his legend is.
Deep Throat, the anonymous, cigarette-smoking scotch drinker who apparently spent an unhealthy amount of time in the early 1970s roaming parking garages in the nation's capital, is grabbing headlines again.
Speculation about the identity of the man (he was a man, wasn't he?) who helped bring about the 1974 downfall of President Richard Nixon for his involvement in the Watergate scandal has never dissipated in the intervening 31 years.
But recent events have brought the issue to the fore and commenced a new round in that long-running, who-am-I? guessing game that involves two ex-presidents and a chief justice.
First came news that papers and notes compiled by "Woodstein" -Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the intrepid Washington Post reporters who broke Watergate and clamped down on Nixon's pants leg like a rottweiler - were being placed on public display by the University of Texas, which paid the scribes $5 million for the privilege.
It was Woodward who introduced the world to Deep Throat, a key source in the probe who sagely advised the reporter to "follow the money." Only four people reportedly know Deep Throat's identity - Woodward, Bernstein, former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and the man himself. All are sworn to secrecy until Deep Throat gives the go-ahead or dies.
Then there was a column in the Los Angeles Times penned by John Dean, Nixon's White House counsel who helped topple his boss by spilling the beans, who said he has been advised that Deep Throat is ill, raising the possibility that the lifting of the veil is imminent.
So far, no official word. But Watergate, the "third-rate burglary" as described at the time by White House spokesman Ron Zeigler, occurred three decades ago. Most suspects would be in their 70s or even older by now and nature, being what it is, could be running its course sooner rather than later.
Watergate remains a definitive event for many who lived through the time. The short history goes like this:
On June 17, 1972, burglars broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in the Foggy Bottom section of Washington. Not being very good burglars, they got caught.
It soon came to light, thanks to Woodward and Bernstein, that the Committee to Re-Elect the President, Nixon's campaign operation, was somehow involved. Investigations ensued, with Deep Throat providing guidance to Woodward. Nixon denied any knowledge of the break-in, but tapes of conversations conducted in the Oval Office established that he was advised and tried to shut down any official probe. Nixon was forced to resign on Aug. 9, 1974.
So the question remains: Who is Deep Throat? Let's look at the five likeliest possibilities:
- Chief Justice William Rehnquist
The flavor of the month among the cognoscenti as a result of his recent battle with throat cancer - fitting Dean's description of an ailing Deep Throat. He was a smoker, a member of the military, a Republican political operative and an assistant attorney general during the early years of the Nixon administration who, possibly, was aware of some of the more distasteful White House dealings.
But Rehnquist left the Justice Department before Watergate, joining the high court in January 1972. And he didn't recuse himself when the high court was asked to determine whether Nixon had to release the tapes of Oval Office conversations. Still, an intriguing possibility.
- Mark Felt
One of the more anonymous candidates, there nonetheless exists plenty of circumstantial evidence pointing to Felt. He was the No. 2 man at the FBI until June 1973, well after the dam broke. He was privy to investigatory information, and H.R. Haldeman, Nixon's chief of staff, was recorded telling the president in a 1972 Oval Office tape that most of the leaks were coming from Felt. Back in 1999, the Hartford Courant reported that Bernstein's son, Jacob, was circulating word that Felt was the man. But Bernstein said he never told his son.
- Leonard Garment
Always suspected of being an undercover liberal, Garment struck up a friendship with Nixon before he became president and served as a special consultant on domestic policy at the White House starting in 1969. He became White House counsel at the time the presidency began to unravel. Garment actually wrote about Deep Throat several years ago, fingering John Sears, a Nixon campaign worker. But Woodward himself broke his silence to reject that suggestion.
- Fred Fielding
Serving as deputy White House counsel under John Dean, Fielding was known to smoke Marlboros and take a drink of scotch every now and again - fitting Woodward's description. He also was certainly in on conversations regarding Watergate as a result of his position. A University of Illinois journalism class, collecting all available information and driving it through a computer, identified Fielding as Deep Throat. Haldeman, in his book about his White House experiences, also pointed at Fielding.
- L. Patrick Gray
A Justice Department official during the early years of the administration, Gray was selected by Nixon to serve as acting FBI director in 1972 upon the death of J. Edgar Hoover. Watergate broke a little more than a month later. A documentary co-produced by CBS News and The Washington Post in 1992, "Watergate: The Secret Story," identified Gray as the prime suspect, noting that he fits the description of Deep Throat provided by Woodward and Bernstein and was the only one of the possible suspects who could have met with Woodward on several of the pertinent dates. Gray and Woodward lived four blocks from one another during the course of events.
(Reach Bill Straub at straubb(at)shns.com)
Silly speculation...but it IS flu season. Also, by this "illness test" one might as well add President Ford and Bob Dole. LOL
Maybe "Deep Throat" was just as "real" as the memos put forth by Dan and his cronies last year.....
Strep Throat?
:)
Actually someone else put out those memos - CBS just did the reporting - a Rove premeptive strike perhaps?
It seems according to all the research I have read that Fred Fielding is the likeliest suspect. I believe he is now 64 years old.
Personally,I wouldn't trust anything John Dean says. He is one of the lowest of the low-life POS ever to come on the Washington scene.
The idea that it is "Poppy" Bush is ludicrous.
FORD DID IT!!! Oh the irony - bumbling president? Or DEEP THROAT??
So whats wrong with this picture?
After he dies, he's identified as an American Hero who helped bring down a corrupt lying President through White House tapes!
After Linda Tripp dies, she'll be known as a traitorous bitch who betrayed the Presidents mistress by taping her to help impeach a corrupt and lying President.
If Ford did it then it was a masterful coup d'etat.
Nope. Doesn't smoke. Never has.
Let me see...... it is someone who has been very ill, obviously old and a political player.
Hey.....I got it!
Deep Throat is (drum roll please) POPE JOHN!
I think it was Ford also. We will have to wait and see.
Of course there is also the speculation that Deep Throat was a fictional device created to make the book more interesting. The source was never mentioned in any of the newspaper reports by Woodward and Bernstein, and his agent admitted that there was no Deep Throat in the first draft of the book. The information attributed to this character was originally credited to various other sources.
Karl Rove traveled back in time, setting events in motion that would help him get W elected.
Basically watergate was a "tempest in a teapot" about NOTHING...a bunch of hypocritical politicians republicans included...seeking to gain 15 seconds in front of a TV camera to express their outrage over a breakin at dumbocrat headquarters in order to find out who was queering who over there.
Who gives a crap about dumbocrat headquarters and its list of prostitutes and pimps?? Evidently John Dean did since his wifes name allegedly appears on this highly sought after infamous list. Probable cause for him to spill his guts to Woodward and Bernstein. But that's another subject.
The real issue is Watergate vs the sale of ballistic missile guidance technology to the soviets, the give away of the Panama Canal, the subversion of Central America, the subversion of Iran and creation of present day islamofascist terrorism, US government massacre of 80-90 innocent US men, women and children at Waco, the give-away of US missile technology and nuclear weapons technology to red china in exchange for bribe money in the form of campaign contributions...and the list goes on endlessly. I'm sure others have far more complete lists of the crimes of carter and clinton against our country.
The point is, by comparison, Watergate (attempted theft of demo pimp/prostitute list) is down in the noise level. Interestingly, many of the pols of both parties who ran Nixon thru with their swords in 73-74 were still around during carter/clinton AND conspicuous by their silence.
My suspicion is that Woodward and Bernstein invented most of the Deep Throat material. Since the lefties would be discredited if this became common knowledge, the "cannot reveal identity until after death" scam was put in place.
Well known that Woodward is a lier from his William Casey material.
They are just waiting for one of the people on their short list to die, and voila, "Deep Throat" bites the dust.
Put my two bucks on Fred Fielding.
Deep Throat -- an amalgam of many?
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