The Legend of Deep Throat - Was Mark Felt really a hero?

OPINION JOURNAL.COM ^ | JUNE 2, 2005 | PEGGY NOONAN

[CHARLITE]

Some wounds don't fully heal because they're too deep and cut too close to the bone. The story that Deep Throat was Mark Felt has torn open old wounds. Pat Buchanan, Robert Novak and Chuck Colson--all at the top of their game 30 years ago, all very much in the game today--were passionate in their criticism, saying Mr. Felt has little to be proud of, was unprofessional, harmed his country. Ben Stein was blunt: Mr. Felt "broke the law, broke his oath, and broke his code of ethics." Old Watergate hand Richard Ben-Veniste and the Washington Post's Richard Cohen called Mr. Felt a hero. The old battle lines fall into place. As to the higher themes of the story, some were credulous. On the "Today" show yesterday Chris Matthews called those who have criticized Mr. Felt "hacks and flacks," whereas reporters "are looking for the truth" and can be trusted. Glad he cleared that up.

Was Mr. Felt a hero? No one wants to be hard on an ailing 91-year-old man. Mr. Felt no doubt operated in some perceived jeopardy and judged himself brave. He had every right to disapprove of and wish to stop what he saw as new moves to politicize the FBI. But a hero would have come forward, resigned his position, declared his reasons, and exposed himself to public scrutiny. He would have taken the blows and the kudos. (Knowing both Nixon and the media, there would have been plenty of both.) Heroes pay the price. Mr. Felt simply leaked information gained from his position in government to damage those who were doing what he didn't want done. Then he retired with a government pension. This does not appear to have been heroism, and he appears to have known it. Thus, perhaps, the great silence.

[Khurkris]

Once again, I'll say it....the word "Hero" is being used much too often and inappropriately.

Its real meaning is being slowly cheapened.

...rant off. Thank you.

[elli1]

And the author of the mess in the Middle East and 9/11 and the death of thousands of Americans.

Not just Americans.

[CHARLITE]

Nice to hear from you, "Happy!" Thanks for the comments. I agree that President Bush is probably doing a lot of wondering, now that this has been revealed. We already know that there have been obstructionists within the State Dept. and also the Pentagon - careerists who were against our efforts in Iraq.

Char

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Nixon's ruin led to a cascade of catastrophic events--the crude and humiliating abandonment of Vietnam and the Vietnamese, the rise of a monster named Pol Pot, and millions--millions--killed in his genocide. America lost confidence; the Soviet Union gained brazenness. What a terrible time. Is it terrible when an American president lies and surrounds himself by dirty tricksters? Yes, it is. How about the butchering of children in the South China Sea. Is that worse? Yes. Infinitely, unforgettably and forever.

No further comment needed about the horror of abandoning the South Vietnamese as the Communist violated the peace accords and invaded the South. The Democrat-controlled Congress reneged on the promise of supplies.

What about dirty tricksters?

Search for Dick Tuck. To wit, one hit says, "Dick Tuck was a legendary political hoaxer who made a career out of ...By 1972 Nixon had decided that he needed someone like Dick Tuck. . . ."

Nixon had decided that he needed someone like the Democrats' Dick Tuck.

Tuck was a DNC dirty trick man and much celebrated by the MSM employees of that day -- the very people who despised Nixon for his dirty tricks.

But if only the Republicans' tricks are reported in the MSM then the Democrats never, never have to cover up -- the MSM do it for them.

[thegreatbeast]

I'm with you. Heroism must entail physical risk.

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

After the impeachment, my father told me President Nixon had been "set up."

Forgive me, I'm a little shaky on Watergate history, since I was just a kid at the time. However, it was my understanding (perhaps flawed) that Nixon was neck-deep in the coverup of the Watergate hotel burglary. Yes, it is truly awful that so many died in Vietnam because the US backed out. However, is that the fault of the man who exposed wrongdoing, or is it the fault of the man who did the wrong in the first place, who perhaps should have been thinking what would happen to his plans if he was exposed in what he should not have been doing?

I'm not saying Felt was a hero at all. His actions stink of self-interest, since he had been passed over for the post he desperately wanted as head of the FBI. But it seems to me that saying Nixon should have gotten a pass on his bad behavior is like all the libs who want to give Clinton a pass on his bad behavior since it was "only sex" or "only a little lie." Bad behavior is bad behavior.

[E Rocc]

He's neither a hero or a traitor (as some would claim). He fought back, succesfully, against a purge by an ethics-free President.

The irony of the liberals making him out to be a hero is the fact that he was a Hoover protege doing precisely what Hoover would have done to a politican that threatened his power....and they make Hoover out to be one of the Great Satans of American history.

-Eric

[E Rocc]

I think he counted on Felt being dead when it all came out.

Yep, so he could maintain his role as the Great Investigator. He knows he was used as a stalking horse and wants to spin history away from that fact.

-Eric

[AFPhys]

Savage is way behind the eight ball on this story. A hundred commentatiors and anlaysts made this point before Savage was even on the air, including Rush, Hannity, Gallagher, Buchanan, Colson, Liddy, and FReepers like yours truly.

[AFPhys]

... the downfall of moderate voices in the Muslim world and then virulent terrorism, ...

MF MF is scum of the worst type, and belongs in jail.

[AFPhys]

You haven't been paying much attention, then - many have noted that the weakness of Nixon brought about chains of events that destroyed SVN, as well as others.

Rush mentioned that, and so did Liddy yesterday (on Hannity's show) ... Chairman_December_19th_Society had a piece about it as well ---

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1414291/posts?page=89#89
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1414291/posts?page=88#88

Many other links on posts this thread, too...

[AFPhys]

"... Nixon was neck-deep in the coverup of the Watergate hotel burglary."

Precisely right. He ought to have stepped back. However, let me reproduce what I wrote yesterday:



Nixon's major crime was loyalty to his friends.

As a result, he helped to cover up an investigation into wrongdoing.

He was threatened with impeachment by Democrats, who had an overwhelming majority, after much hounding by the Old Media - who were representing the communists who were still looking for an opportunity to avenge Nixon's bringing down Alger Hiss (as well as McCarthy's demeaning their Hollywood idols). Representatives of Nixon's party, Republicans, took a walk from the Capitol to the WH to ask in a private conversation that he resign.

Nixon further showed his loyalty to his friends and his country by resigning, instead of forcing the party and country to split in a raucous trial over this, though he never believed his actions were wrong. In fact he believed that the state of war gave the executive branch the right to do what his subordinates did, though he never specifically authorized their ill-fated actions, and cited WW2 precedents.

An unbiased history of Watergate would include this, and you won't get that from most history books or the Old Media FRAUDcasters.



In addition, you probably will find it hard to locate the information that the US Atty Gen was well into an (grand jury?) investigation of the break-in before WP and MF "broke" the story in the media. MF ought to have gone to him and the judge with information he had, rather than doing what he did for his own aggrandizement.

Felt's illegal leaking of FBI files was due to avarice, not nobility.
`\

[AFPhys]

I hope you get out of my post above that Nixon always believed that the executive branch had the right for these WaterGate activities, and cited WW2 precedents.

Also, another major difference from the 'Toon: he resigned for the good of the country instead of tear it apart further. --- read his resignation speech sometime. Nixon was an honorable man who always kept his country in mind, unlike the narcissist Clinton.

[elli1]

Agreed.

[Miss Marple]

Nixon was guilty of a cover-up of bad behavior of subordinates. I am now in doubt that this was bad behavior on a par with others who had done bad things and did not have to resign, such as Kennedy and Johnson.

It is curious to me that after decades of scurrilous activity in the White House, the media suddenly felt compelled to report it when it was Nixon. You will notice how they changed course completely when Clinton was in power.

The proper thing for Felt to do was to go to the Grand Jury. If he felt the Grand Jury had been compromised, then it was his responsibility to rresign and hold a public press conference detailing the reasons for his resignation. Instead, he found a willing reporter to whom he could feed information while maintaining his goverment paycheck.

Felt's actions were intended to bring down a president. Nixon's actions were to help subordinates. I think it conceivable that Nixon could not have seen the consequences of his actions, while Felt most certainly knew that Nixon could be impeached, and that the succeeding president would be weakened.

[AFPhys]

"It is curious to me that after decades of scurrilous activity in the White House, the media suddenly felt compelled to report it when it was Nixon. You will notice how they changed course completely when Clinton was in power."

The socialists who controlled the MSM and the networks were still angry that Nixon brought down Alger Hiss, as well as McCarthy's demeaning of Hollywood.

Coulter's book TREASON is a good documentary of much of this.

[Calvin Locke]

No one wants to be hard on an ailing 91-year-old man.

It happens practically everyday: Israel still goes after [former] Nazis. The FBI is digging up a 50 year-old
body to go after person or persons unknown that would be in the 90+/- age bracket.

I want to be hard on 91 year-olds that wreak mayhem by operating motor vehicles beyond their capacity.

I want to be hard on a former government bureaucrat that's seeking to profit off of notoriety gained from illegal actions.

From what I understand, he didn't let the system work before he started taking it upon himself to underhandedly
short circuit the legal system.

Then there is the culpability in the deaths of millions of people in SE Asia, and creating the situation for the
election of and idiot, James Earl Carter, which spawned the rise of state-sponsored terrorism, and the treasonous
William Jefferson Clinton, thanks to the self-importance of the fifth column, er, fourth estate that he spurred on
with his illegal acts.

[melancholy]

Hero, my foot! He brought down one of the best presidents we ever had. If Nixon were a Democrat, Felt couldn't have brought him down even if he wanted to because of the TOTALLY liberal media at that time.

Nowadays, if you break your oath, cheat, lie, steal, even kill you'll become a millionaire, perhaps a hero, provided that you're a Democrat!

OTOH, if you're a straight-arrow Republican, you'll be smeared by the media with no apologies required when you prove otherwise.

The Felt betrayal is another example of The First Amendment Protection Plan at work, Enjoy!

[Alia]

This is a very good Peggy Noonan column. She parses the matter perfectly in her conclusion:

Or as they put it in yet another John Ford masterpiece, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," "When the legend becomes the fact, print the legend."

Reminds me of sci life before the electron was ACTUALLY "seen". Up until that time in science, "electrons" were a working hypothesis. The thinking was, "it has to be, therefore it must be". In this case, science community made a solidly calculated "guess" which improved scientific discovery.

I don't think the same holds true for the liberals, in this case. Therefore, have mercy, give them their legends.

[shhrubbery!]

I have yet to see a commentator mention that if Nixon hadn't been taken down by Watergate, that Vietnam would almost certainly not have fallen in 75'

Ben Stein said it most eloquently yesterday: Deep Throat and Genocide...

When [Richard Nixon's] enemies brought him down... this is what they bought for themselves in the Kharma Supermarket that is life:

1.) The defeat of the South Vietnamese government with decades of death and hardship for the people of Vietnam.
2.) The assumption of power in Cambodia by the bloodiest government of all time, the Khmer Rouge, who killed a third of their own people, often by making children beat their own parents to death. No one doubts RN would never have let this happen.

So, this is the great boast of the enemies of Richard Nixon, including Mark Felt: they made the conditions necessary for the Cambodian genocide...