Thanks, bookmarked.
Sorry if this is a repost, it's an interesting read...
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199205/mann
The Atlantic Monthly | May 1992
Deep Throat: An Institutional Analysis
(snip)
This tradition was suddenly thrown into question with Hoover's death. Officials at the Bureau believed that Hoover's successor would be appointed from within their ranks. W. Mark Felt, the FBI's deputy associate director, the No. 3 man in Hoover's hierarchy, wrote in a 1979 memoir, The FBI Pyramid:
It did not cross my mind that the President would appoint an outsider to replace Hoover. Had I known this, I would not have been hopeful about the future. There were many trained executives in the FBI who could have effectively handled the job of Director. My own record was good and I allowed myself to think I had an excellent chance.
When Hoover died, FBI officials like Felt did not have much time to think. On May 3, while Hoover's body was lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda, Assistant Attorney General L. Patrick Gray III appeared at FBI headquarters and asked to see Hoover's secret files. FBI officials refused, insisting that there were no such documents, and after a nasty face-off Gray left. A few hours later Gray was appointed by the Nixon Administration to be the FBI's acting director.
(snip)
Candidates From the FBI
A S I said at the outset, I didn't know who Deep Throat was. I know from conversation with Bob Woodward at the time only that he was from the FBI.
He could well have been Mark Felt, who admitted that he harbored ambitions to be the FBI director -- not only at the time of Hoover's death but also in the spring of 1973, when Gray's nomination as permanent director failed to win confirmation and Nixon named William Ruckelshaus acting director. Felt was known in Washington as a person willing to talk to the press. He has denied that he was Deep Throat. "I never leaked information to Woodward and Bernstein or to anyone else!" he wrote in his 1979 book. Felt retired from the FBI in 1973, not long after Ruckelshaus's appointment.
(snip)
He served as assistant U.S. attorney from 1968 to 1973, including the turbulent period of the Watergate scandal. Mr. Ben-Veniste was a leading figure in the prosecution of this scandal. He served as chief of the Watergate Task Force of the Watergate Special Prosecutor's Office. He later aided in the investigations of other other issues of national importance, including serving as chief councel of the Senate Whitewater Committee(where he acted as chief counsel to the crooks). In his private practice, he has represented Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe, and continues to represent major clients such as Boeing and United Airlines.
Ben-Veniste is a Presidential appointee to the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group, a group mandated to review and declassify documents relating to war crimes in the World War II era. He also co-authored Stonewall: The Real Story of the Watergate Prosecution. (I'm sure. /sarcasm)
Reposts are fine. Right now I'm just throwing up info I've seen without regard to sorting and making sure things make sense. There is a great deal in this thread, and in the predecessor:
W. Mark Felt is Deep Throat http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1413754/posts
Anybody trying to synthesize it all and make it more comprehensible has a lot of material in just these two threads to consider.
Why would he retire?
He was actively working to get Nixon thrown out?
He would have had his chance at the top spot?
Was he pushed out? Odd.