Posted on 06/01/2005 8:10:11 AM PDT by kellynla
For years the better class of Deep Throat sleuth—discriminating, Campari-sipping sophisticates like James Mann, Nora Ephron, Richard Nixon, Washingtonian magazine, Chase Culeman-Beckman, Ronald Kessler, and yours truly—have been fingering W. Mark Felt, former deputy associate director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as the likely anonymous source described by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in All the President's Men.
What the theory lacked in originality it more than made up for in plausibility. One month before the Watergate break-in, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had died.
Hoover loyalists at the bureau were frantic that President Richard Nixon would get his mitts on the FBI, which Hoover had kept independent of political control through a variety of nasty methods, including blackmail.
The Hooverites' bureaucratic anxieties were well-founded: After the Watergate break-in, Hoover's acting successor, a Nixon loyalist named L. Patrick Gray, routinely passed FBI files about Watergate directly to White House counsel John Dean, who was a party to (but eventually would expose) the White House's illegal coverup. In effect, the White House ended up knowing everything the FBI knew. (That's why it seemed so plausible that, if not Felt, Deep Throat might be Deputy White House Counsel Fred Fielding, a theory that, I regret to say, undermined in recent years my previous rock-solid conviction that it was Felt, or at least some other high-ranking G-man—case closed.) Felt pushed back by helping Woodward and Bernstein discover that high-level White House aides were in up to their necks in Watergate, up to and including Nixon.
(Excerpt) Read more at politics.slate.msn.com ...
You mean Hilary is going to milk this thing for three more years? Oh, please, no!
Some of us either barely remember Watergate, or don't remember it at all. Except that Mama cried when Nixon resigned ...
That said, I think if Mark Felt was Deep Throat, he must have been doing so for revenge, very selfish motives.
We can only hope so.
She pushed to deny the right to counsel for Nixon and her immediate superior (sorry, his name escapes me now) stated in writing that she was one of very few lawyers working for him who he would not recommend for a job.
The irony of it all. The mystery and mystique of "Deep Throat".... Who could it possibly be?
Just another bureaucratic schnook with a grudge.
Jack.
That said, I think if Mark Felt was Deep Throat, he must have been doing so for revenge, very selfish motives.
Anti hero is the correct phrase. So he didn't get that promotion he wanted, huh?
Deep Throat, liberal poster child ...
There is nothing about the "timing" that undermines the tawdry tale.
You may be bored by the exposure of the true nature of Deep Throat, but many of us are pleased it has finally come out that noble purpose was not behind the duplicity.
Nonsense.
Besides, her role was deemed unethical. I doubt she wants to go there.
Quite a conflict for a man torn between public duty and responsibility and the idea of personal morality. Did he do right?
BTW, in case you haven't noticed, almost immediately the media (and even this idiotic grinning Felt family) realized the public wasn't going to view Felt as a hero.
This only serves up a heap of "never mind".
By Jerry Zeifman
Thanks!
He did wrong in his office. Did he do wrong as a man?
He betrayed his office and should suffer the penalty under law. Whether a subordinate office is the highest thing is another question.
Deep Throat: unindicted felon
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.
---->
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.
----->
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."
----->
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.
----->
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.
`\
And let me add,
MF ought to have gone over to the US Attorney, who was already well into investigating, instead of doing his self-aggrandizing power play - for which until recently, he was properly ashamed - but insufficiently punished.
Someone ought to clue the Old Mediots and those who they have been indoctrinating these last thirty years, about the results of the greatly overblown Watergate affair:
-A presidency was brought down by indirect effects simply because the president was perhaps overly loyal to his people.
-The United States was weakened.
- Nixon's weakness led to the defeat of S.VietNam, and the death of the millions of SE.Asians.
-The worst and weakest president of the 20th century was installed - emboldening our enemies.
-The Shah of Iran was overthrown instead of the US being able to bolster up a voice of moderation and modernity in the MidEast - and much of the world's terrorism was strengthened as a result
- and OPEC stretched its muscles - and the US was not strong enough to effectively respond (I categorically don't mean militarity).
-Reagan was the inevitable reaction to the worst president, but by that time irreversible damage had been done.
-The Old Media FRAUDcasters have since been trying to bring down presidents, and even found themselves forced, finally, into joining the New Media to some extent against Bill Clinton.
-Journalism's "highest calling" has become trying to bring shame on politicians - with the gold prizes for R-politicians - instead of reporting news that really affects the country and the world.
We're still in the process of attempting to recover from Watergate.
`\
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.