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.
We should be talking about SS, Bolton, Court Judges, base closings, terrorists....And here we are discussing a 91 year olds "illegal" leaks to the press. HE DIDN'T DO IT ALONE!!
The Today Show ratings are in the toilet. Let them further annoy their audience.
Your dad was right. Nixon's mistake was that in trying to protect his friends he obstructed justice. He should have simply stepped aside and let the investigation run it's course. The political gameness of Watergate brought down a president. Today it is bringing down a nation.
I'd be interested to know if the family tried to negotiate with Woodward and Bernstein to keep quiet until Woodstein's little unveiling.
BUT Linda Tripp was bad?
What is the purpose of your post?
Referring to NewsWeak and Rathergate I suppose.
AM......you better clean up this thread...fast.
Ah, but it's not just about anonymous sources, is it? Not all whistleblowers are created equal. Nor are the subjects of their whistleblowing.
This attention for Deep Throat just makes that hypocrisy all the more more apparent.
Yes, please hurry, this is disgusting.
The pictures above are gross and uncalled for. Please remove. This is not what FreeRepublic is about.
The post above is a set up for someone to say this is what freerepublic is about.
bump to get by that filthy post
hummmm.....I wonder what "debt" his daughter is talking about? Just on first blush impression, it appears as though his daughter takes very, very good care of herself.......Maybe she needed money to put the old man in a nursing home.....hummm......
The bottomless hypocrisy of the MSM!
Linda ought to write her book after all.
We await the Nietzschean "spaghetti Western" interpretation of Felt as ambiguous, complex anti-hero. [sigh]
Lewinsky was ripe for being "Fostered" without her dress and Linda Tripp's tapes.
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