Posted on 06/01/2005 4:40:18 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
You just knew Today was going to revel in the Deep Throat story this morning. When the face of your beloved party is the dour Harry Reid, the tautly-stretched Nancy Pelosi and the 'expansive' Teddy Kennedy, any chance to switch the subject to the good old days of bashing bad old Richard Nixon must be seized.
In fairness, Andrea Mitchell, reporting the story, made a balanced presentation. Among other things she raised the possibility that the 91-year old Felt, who has suffered a stroke, might have been incapable of truly making the decision to reveal his identity as Deep Throat, and that instead it was his family that made it for him in the pursuit of money.
Further tempering Today's enthusiasm for Felt might have been the fact, which they reorted, that in 1980 Felt was convicted and fined $5,000 for approving FBI break-ins of homes of members of the radical Weather Underground. President Reagan subsequently granted him a full pardon.
Interviewing Woodward John O'Connor, the Felt family advisor who broke story in Vanity Fair, Couric suggested that Felt's children had said to him: "Woodward is going to get all the glory but we could make enough money to pay off the bills." O'Connor maintained that Felt's "main motivation was heroic, and with the goal of creating a permanent legacy, not money."
But ultimately, Couric was willing to look the other way on any Felt foibles, for after all, he did play a crucial role in destroying the presidency of the hated Richard Nixon.
Here's how Katie editorialized her admiration: "It's interesting that in people's lives, they sometimes come to a fork in the road and decide to do the right thing. What motivated him to do the right thing?"
O'Connor gave some bland answer about doing the right thing for the country.
Matt Lauer then interviewed former Nixon aides Pat Buchanan and Chuck Colson, stating that Colson was "often labelled Nixon's hatchet man." Funny, I don't recall Matt calling any of Clinton's heavies by that term.
Predictably, neither Colson nor Buchanan respected Felt's actions, calling them a betrayal of trust and of the confidentiality of the FBI. Buchanan pointed out that Hoover had been fully familiar with JFK's seamy personal life but never leaked it to the press.
By far the most interesting revelation was this. In rebutting the notion that Felt had acted heroically, I think it was Buchanan who mentioned that, a month before Felt began leaking to Woodward on Watergate, he had leaked him inside details on the assassination attempt on George Wallace.
In other words, this was not about heroism and saving the country. This was FBI inside politics, as Asst. Director Felt had been angling for appointment as Director, replacing Hoover, and was bitter that he had been passed over.
Felt is a Klinton-like scumbag.
Watergate tore apart a nation and demoralized it - and contributed greatly to the "malaise" of the '70s. It was greatly overblown, and we are now likely to discover that the pieces all fit: that it was a blatantly political ploy to hurt Republicans.
This is one MF who ought to be in jail. Something ought to be done to extract reparations from this MF and his family.
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However, I just love the "investigators" who have fingered so many people wrongly over the course of the years.
Look at some examples from Wikipedia (as of yesterday):
First cut:
Over the years, political observers have suggested many possible candidates as Deep Throat, including FBI director L. Patrick Gray, Nixon advisor Alexander Haig, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and even former U.N. ambassador (and later president) George Bush, Sr..
[I never suspected any of these, personally - but had no idea myself who else to suspect]
Second cut:
Leading candidates
Generally acknowledged to be the three leading candidates are W. Mark Felt, Fred Fielding, and William H. Rehnquist.
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Someone from Wikipedia gets partial credit!
also, check out this School of "Journalism" take:
"The 7 finalists are listed here: http://www.comm.uiuc.edu/spike/deepthroat/
Patrick Buchanan, speechwriter and special assistant to the president.
David Gergen, speechwriter, then served as press spokesman for President Reagan.
Jonathan Rose, Attorney for White House relations.
Raymond Price, head speechwriter.
Stephen Bull, a special administrative assistant to Nixon.
Fred Fielding, top assistant to John Dean.
Gerald L. Warren, deputy press secretary under Nixon."
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How about how well the Investigative Journalism classes at UofI can really get to the bottom of things...
From another of their web sites: http://deepthroatuncovered.com/
How students solved one of America's top mysteries
After a four-year investigation, students at the University of Illinois have determined the identity of Deep Throat, the most elusive, anonymous news source in history: Fred Fielding, deputy counsel to former President Richard Nixon
Updated 11/21/2003
Wrong yet again...
Amazing.
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More amazing is the supreme confidence these academics have in their results.
These are the type of people who are writing "history books" now - "investigating" such things as Jefferson's sex life, etc. ,as well as seeking out stories for Newsweak, CBS 60min, and the NYSlimes.
It is important for us to to recognize their enormous fallibility.
Many people have been slandered by these "investigative journalists" inspired by their @#$%^ "professors" over the years.
To me/ For ME - this is the real story of Watergate.
I loathe them all nowadays.
FRAUDcasters.
I think Felt was kinda an open secret. Buchanan would tell people it was Felt but never on the air or formally because he didn't want any libel action.
This strikes me as the crux of felt's ugly swarmy traitorous actions. And if this situation was switched with a demodummy president and a demodummy deep throat, well the media would be screaming that felt was motivated by sour apples then and he and his family are motivated by $$$$$$$$$$$$ and fame now.
But then the rules for other-than-demodumies are always different....
That's interesting. I had not ever heard that.
Felt essentially did what Pollard did.
Don't forget Carter(the failure from the seventies) boycotted the olympics, further emasculating ourselves when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.
"It's interesting that in people's lives, they sometimes come to a fork in the road and decide to do the right thing. What motivated him to do the right thing?"
You mean he imposed his "morality" on the political process? What horrors! Isn't that contrary to the liberal Separation of Church and State point of view? Gee, where did these morals of his to do the "right" thing come from?
I think Hillary got to the family to bring it to the forfront so she can say she worked on the impeachment panel to help her in 08
Said it before: Katie is full of crap.
bump
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