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.
The double-standard once again is oblivious to the Old Media.
one can only hope that now Katie will insist that Hillary do the right thing and return to the FBI the files she has, and all copies thereof, and, further, reveal names of any and all to whom this information was revealed. Katie will do that, right ?
No kidding
But it was entertaining to watch 1)Matt get berated by Buchanan and Colson, who described Felt as not a hero, 2)Katie's puzzlement ("I'm confused" she says to her heroes Brokaw and Russert) that there was another perspective other than the liberal one and 3)Brokaw and Russert reassuring Katie that all is right with her world, the liberal pov is the correct one.
It was like watching the liberal media perspective in miniature...their point of view is the correct one, anyone who has a different one is a right-wing nut.
Funny line. Great job as always. :-P
Thanks for your report. I am not at all surprised at Katie's viewpoint.
Maybe she is suffering emotional distress from that horrible picture of her on the cover of the tabloid this week.
"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?"
I normally don't see the today show. But I'm at home this morning and my wife had it on. The above quote stopped me in my tracks, thinking "did she really say that"? Shouldn't she say ". . . and decide to do 'what they think is' the right thing. What motivated him to do 'what he thought was' the right thing?"
I have read stories on Free Republic about how she blatantly editorializes in her interviews, but to hear her actually do it is truely mind-boggling.
And the MSM tries to say they aren't biased.
Bull malarky!
Buchanan is right. Felt was a dishonorable crook. He should be prosecuted for leaking FBI secrets to the press.
"Sounds like someone the RATS would elect as a President"
Few years younger and he would be their perfect candidate.
This was, of course, a golden opportunity for the entire anti-Nixonian Washington establishment to pretend as if 'deep throat' was a real person.
Felt's age and possibly mental fitness, as Andrea Mitchell rightly points out are factors in the 'now or never' revelation agreed upon with serendipity just yesterday, even though Felt has been ruled out for years from the list of candidates, because he doesn't correlate in too many important details, accounts and characteristics with the 'deep' character of the story.
Can there be any doubt now that the WP was wrong in running the story ?
Responsible journalists cannot run a story aimed at taking down a President on one anonymous source. the Post not only ran it they virtually created an election year scandal by fiat. Then when Nixon won 49 States the Post was only too eager to override that vote.
Nixon was right; there was one standard for Democrats, one for Republicans and one for him. Still he remains one of the single most important Presidents ever. We'd still be in Vietnam ( a democrat war if ever there was one, as Sen. Dole rightly commented ) if not for Richard Nixon.
I also feel that there has been an obvious betrayal of the presumed conditions of anonymity for this Source since Woodward and Bernstein were clear that the Source would be revealed, after his demise. Recently they even broke the story that he was 'near death'.
These important facts do not add up.
At the 1997 Convention of the Nationalist Party, an offshoot of Buchananist Republicanism and T. Roosevelt's 'Bullmoose' Progressivism, I gave a policy address where I affirmed my belief that the entire Watergate epic of the leftist Washington Media elite was based on several important points, many of which were fictional, all part of a retribution spreading all the way back to Alger Hiss and also the 'bought' election of 1960.
This I traced as an important step in the evolution of the GOP into the lesser creature it had become. Then in the aftermath of the Gingrich revolution, many of us were passionate about a return to the idealism of the Eisenhower GOP based on reintroduction of the important planks which the Nationalist Party promulgated.
I didn't see it. Do you recall in which tabloid the photo appeared? Perhaps someone can post it.
I get the distinct impression he was that little whiny kid who tatle taled upon every slight.
He reminds me of trent lott.
Thanks, Huck!
Yes, it was good of "Professor Brokaw" to reassure Katie that all was right with her world. /sarcasm off
Dude, this is a great point, one that will sail over the heads of the MSM. The exit of Nixon and the defeat of Ford emasculated the dominant Rockefeller wing of the Republican party. People forget how darn liberal Republicans used to be before Reagan came along. They were the first ones to champion birth control (Senator Bush), abortion (Senator Packwood) and even oppose the Vietnam war in the Senate. (Senators Javits and Hatfield)
Watergate was probably a bad thing but it was not a big thing, if a Dem had done it. Selling nuclear technology to the Red Chinese is a big thing. Lying under oath is a big thing. Trying to fix a trial in which you are a party is a big thing. Raping women is a big thing. Destroying evidence wanted by the FBI is a big thing. Defiling the White House is a big thing. I could go on but why bother.
Even to an inveterate Today Show watcher like me, it was shocking to hear Couric express such an unequivocal opinion on such a controversial subject.
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