Posted on 06/02/2005 11:18:04 AM PDT by ken5050
Much has been written about the need and desire of Felt's family to cash in on his 15 minutes of fame. I have no problem with this, but we're also hearing about how he is living in a converted garage at his daughter's house, and that she has taken care of him for 20 years. Before designating her for sainthood. I 'd like to point out that he has been receiving a federal pension all this time, and he retired at the top of the federal pay system I know very little about the federal system, but assume there are many here who can estimate what his salary was at the time he retired, and what his pension is, even assuming that he elected a reduced benefit option to provide a survivor benefitfor his wife.
Both my parents were on the same page as your dad. I'm tellin' ya...I *lived* Watergate. I watched it tear up the location I lived. Neighbors, schools, churches. Yah... "Tune in and Drop Out" became very real in the location I lived. Of course, the results of that slogan are: "Trust the Media, Drop Out of School, Work, and your Family.".
...doesn't make him a hero. He isn't...
Beatles??!! LOL DITTO!!! We listened to OUR music until he walked in door from work and we INSTANTLY turned on Classic. He even hated "Bridge Over Troubled Water" because the orchestra was soooo bad!!
Our dad's were soul mates!
btw, we met Nixon and Agnew in D.C. on vacation once. Nixon came over and talked to my brother and me. My dad was a happy man that day!
My schools got the first of the Berkeley Free Speech Graduates, as our teachers. Then there were also the "radicals" who came to the churches. The drugs just began flowing soonafter.
I assume that Felt opted for the survivor benefit for his wife, w;hich would have reduced his annual penison by about 10%. Once she died, the pension would be restored to the full amount. The pension is taxable.
Felt's advancement to Number 2 in the FBI was fairly rapid. Reading is bio I now understand why. He had political connections.
>>>>>I remember the SDS. Infiltrating our schools.>>>>
They were formed during a secret meeting in Port Huron, If I remember correctly. U of Mich was hotbed of drugs, sex and anti-establishment fervor. But who brought it there, What class suddenly was up in arms that the 'pigs' must die?
When did we go from Animal House highjinx to 'Hair' drug-induced nihilism? From Elvis and Motown to the Beatles and Simon& Garfunkle?
Ann Arbor is still a lefty haven. All those hippies from the 60's and 70's are now municipal and college administrators and policy makers. We're going up for Art Fair this summer. It's a fun place to visit, but I'd never want to live there.
Pinz
Using hero in this kind of context is merely in the eyes of the beholder. Did you think Linda Tripp is a hero?
We ate Watergate for dinner every night. Not long after, my dad became ill and died at age 53. He had cancer......but the Watergate fiasco didn't help his outlook. We look back now and know how deeply this affected my dad.
And look.......here I am on FR getting wrought up over the same thing umpteen years later!! We've all come full cirlce!
I'll tell you one thing, if this were MY father you can bet I would NEVER want ANYONE to know what he did. Not for all the tea in China.
That would make sense if there weren't two reporters waiting for your father to die before they let the world know the truth. In this way he at least has a little control over how he'll be characterized by this knowledge. Plus, he'll be able to leave a substantial estate to his children and grandchildren. Enough to have he and his family grinning from ear to ear. Incidentally, what they intend to do with the money is their own business. I'm sure we've heard is what they think we want to hear.
Tumbling down rabbit holes is not my style. I'll leave it to conspiracy theorists to divine the insidious nature of the family's motivation. (insert eyeroll)
Don't feel bad.......I went to Kent.
...doesn't make him a hero. He isn't...
Unfortunately, in the eyes of the MSM and the Left, he is a hero. The winners get to write the history books, which is what they have done for the most part. Nixon was forced to resign in disgrace and then pardoned.
Her father had settled that before when he made the deal with Woodward and Bernstein allowing them to reveal his name upon his death.
If the man has changed his mind of his own volition that's fine and well and I'm certainly happy to hear the answer to the mystery now rather than later.
However, I fail to see where, IF the man is not able to manage his affairs any longer (something in dispute from the varying accounts) the daughter has the right to unilaterally change that deal---and not even make it with Woodward and Bernstein but Vanity Fair.
The accounts are he is fully aware and chose this course with the daughter's strenuous encouragement.
Obviously a new deal was struck, unbeknownst to Woodward and Bernstein. It appears as unethical as the original leaking. Very interesting, no doubt about that.
I don't give a darn how they spend the money. Just seems odd to me that they waited until he was senile to out him. HIS story won't be told. We won't hear HIS side of it. That's the shame of it all. We will still only get W&B. Which is heresay.....same with the daughter.
>>>>>Then there were also the "radicals" who came to the churches.>>>>
We used to go up to Ann Arbor for 'prayer meetings' sponsored by Word of God, a fundamentalist/Pentacostalist Cult that was being developed within the Catholic Church.
Those were the days of the Jesus Freaks. Not so much drugs, very little sex, but head-in-the-clouds pseudo sophisticated antiestablishmentarianism. (BTW, a word I met in 1961. Wonder where it came from...)
It's like there was a radical organization ready to go to infiltrate every segment of society in the 60's.
And now I must run to the store to pick up another roll of foil. :-)
Pinz
Yes, "karma" in re full circle. But I don't think the dems and libs are prepared for what is coming at them in the "cosmos".
But it is full circle, in another way. Perhaps you are suggesting this?
Watergate ushered in a horrid horrid time. It created big pockets of "blue", where the mix of red/blue had been far more scattered, constituting a balanced "marriage" (political) society. Watergate ushered in this mind numbing idiocy that the news was really "objective". And that Democrats were for "peace" when in fact they were not. Those who were old enough to go through "watergate" are reliving painful memories. But! With a wonderful twist. The fireball the socialists shot at America -- Lady Liberty is throwing back a missile at the socialists. Remember those days, but remember too where we are now. And my own feeling is relief. Release, and relief that the scumbags who perpetrated this "media" blitzkrieg so long ago which ushered in so much wrong, are sitting looking like deers in the headlights of an oncoming Tanker. Feels good. :)
In a bathroom in Berkeley, long ago, I read this:
"If you look far out in time. Far out in space. Know what you'll see?"
"The back of your head". ... :)
I'll take the assertions of those who know him that he's in possession of his faculties and chose this course.
Since he did have a deal set in place I don't see where a daughter authorized with guardianship would get off on changing such a promise on her own.
As you note, she's been open about pressing him to strike a money-making deal. But to have done so on her own volition and without his express consent strikes me as grossly unethical.
For the time being it appears he made the final decision and consented to reveal himself without notifying Woodward and Bernstein first.
According to the various press reports re his health, Felt has suffered several strokes and is sometimes lucid and sometimes not. He has not said very much except he was going to make some money. I don't know if the daughter is the legal guardian or not, but clearly Felt needs assistance and cannot manage on his own.
According to reports, they were trying to sell the story to People a few years ago, but the asking price was too high. I assume her father was involved in that decision.
The accounts are he is fully aware and chose this course with the daughter's strenuous encouragement. Obviously a new deal was struck, unbeknownst to Woodward and Bernstein. It appears as unethical as the original leaking. Very interesting, no doubt about that.
I would be interested in learning what the relationship was between Felt and W&B. It is obvious that the family did not want to deal with them. I get the feeling that they believe W&B had exploited them. The sale of the Warergate papers to the University of Texas for $5 million may have been the last straw.
And you survived! lol
I went to a Catholic Women's college in St. Louis, where the dilectic was in full force, and I left after 3 semesters.
Bioethics and an environmental class were required freshman year. That's where they separated the sheep from the goats. I was naive nough to argue with a sweet-faced, smiling nun who wanted us all to agree with various lifeboat scenarios.
But I learned to trust my gut when it came to creepy people, even when they were wearing a habit and scapular. And I have great hope that Benedict can restore some of old underpinnings of the Church.
My dad died in '61, thankfully missing the crumbling of his beloved Democrat party. My mom thinks anyone with the name of Kennedy still walks on water, and is now in favor of abortion. We stick to small talk when I go home to visit.
Pinz
The surviving spouse could receive a certain percentage of his retirement. I have never heard of a daughter receiving a portion of a federal employees retirement. Not by the old CSR or FERS civil service retirement programs. NSNR
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