What Everybody's Missing About Deep Throat (He Would Have Buried Watergate)

Self | June 2, 2005 | JohnRobertson

[John Robertson]

Yes, absolutely.

He had information, which had value, and he sold it (his price was vengeance, and pique, and if those Watergate-era photos are sending any messages across the decades, smugness).

Just because Nixon and his people didn't know the terms (make me FBI head and I won't leak like a wooden boat that sat out back in the yard for fourteen years), doesn't mean a deal wasn't there for their making. If Nixon had appointed him, he would have kept his mouth shut, so the Nixon government wouldn't unravel, and cost him the job he so openly coveted.

And does anyone really doubt that such an amoral opportunist wouldn't have proactively gotten involved in defending his position within the regime that was threatened? And taken action to protect himself within that regime?

[sourcery]

It's interesting to contrast and compare attitudes towards Mark Felt and Linda Tripp.

[Old Sarge]

Boy, now THERE'S an interesting alternate universe...

[Mach9]

We're not even sure he wasn't blackmailing the Deep-Throat Juniors he had to be getting info from!

[MJY1288]

I wonder if Woodward and Bernstein realize why they were chosen by W. Mark Felt?<p.They were chosen because they were green horns and easily manipulated. Mark Felt was on a mission to destroy Nixon and he needed two flunkies to do his dirty work. Woodward never questioned Felt's motives, The Erlichman/Felt connection is an interesting story and one has to wonder if the two of them were in cahoots

[John Robertson]

Yes, Tripp compared to Felt....

Tripp: Victimized, threatened, demeaned, diminished, finances challenged and lost. Yet still retained dignity.

Felt: Victimizer, nefarious plotter, revenge-motivated op, challenged finances about to be boosted. Never had any real dignity to start with.

You pick the hero.

[TexasNative2000]

It's interesting to contrast and compare attitudes towards Mark Felt and Linda Tripp.

Even moreso, the media portrayal of Mark Felt and Gary Aldrich.

[John Robertson]

But the for a decision-flip--Yeah, put Felt in that job--so much of history would have been so very different.

In fact...do you know those novels where Hitler won the war--what the world would be like?

Think of a novel where Watergate was a blip, then went away.

Nixon finishes his term.

Finishes much of his agenda.

Ford, probably two terms, in spite of himself.

We would never have had to up with Jimmah Cahtah.

And probably no Clinton (southern governor, etc.).

Only two dem presidents in 40 years...Carter and Toon.

And if Nixon had given Felt the job, we wouldn't have had to put up with them.

The lingering "triumph" of the Left bringing down Nixon never would have saturated the culture.

And liberalism would be far, far paler than it is today.

[Pappy Smear]

So Watergate gets buried, and Nixon serves out his term. Who gets elected in 76? No way Carter gets elected without Watergate. Without Carter, Reagan never gets elected in 80--tho maybe in 76 he might have. Maybe Bob Dole in 76?

All in all, how it all turned out seems relatively well.

[John Robertson]

"We're not even sure he wasn't blackmailing the Deep-Throat Juniors he had to be getting info from!"

Exactly. Or somesuch nefarious behavior. He has already demonstrated that he would do anything--follow orders loyally...betray you (under cover of darkness)...then one day cash in....

[Old Sarge]

But, you know, would there have been a Ronald Reagan?

Would we have had the Shining City on the Hill?

[Ann Archy]

He was Hoover's second in command...who do we think got the juicy file information on Martin Luther King, Kennedy, and ALL the others that Hoover kept in line??? Could it have been Felt? What a CREEP...What a HYPOCRITE! "WAHHHH....I want the Director's job or else I'll RUIN you"!

Hey Joan Felt and greedy son.....you have exposed your father and grandfather to an ugly ruin yourselves.....kind of takes the hero worship right out.

[Ann Archy]

What's the Erlichman/Felt connection?

[MJY1288]

I agree, plus it's a futile discussion, simply because the past is the past, and no amount of imaginative thinking could ever really come up with all the possibilities of where we would be today if Watergate was buried.

I'll gladly suffer through Carter in order to have been blessed with Ronald Reagan as my President

[John Robertson]

Aldrich is the model for a "hero" declaring chicanery of a high-level boss.

Felt, a "hero"?

Heroes step up and say, Hey, this is going on! They don't skulk around, hiding, fearful and vengeful at the same time. That's not a hero.

And we will never know if ALL the stuff Felt gave the reporters was even true, because he's a dithering jerk, and nearly all of the key players are dead.

[John Robertson]

See my #8.

[Howlin]

Our side has pointed out that he authorized/engineered illegal breakins himself...

And you know what the real kicker is? When he was on trial, just guess who Felt asked to come to court and testify on his behalf that sometimes things like black bag jobs have to be done?

Just guess.

[John Robertson]

"But, you know, would there have been a Ronald Reagan? Would we have had the Shining City on the Hill?"

Well, you have something here.

But then again: Reagan was a once in a century leader... perhaps a once in a country's lifetime leader. And he think he would have risen to the top anyway.

[John Robertson]

Hitting nails directly on heads dittoes.

[MJY1288]

Erlichman was in some trouble that W. Mark Felt helped him with and Erlichman was indebted to Felt. Mark Felt's biographer (Who very recently agreed to sell his rights to Mark Felt's Memoirs to his family) has said that Erlichman was Felt's White House source