Felts didn't betray the American public, Nixon did. If my top boss commits a crime, I'm ethically obligated to report it. If my superiors are in cahoots with him, I do what I have to do.
If that make me a traitor, then so be it. I'm a patriotic American.
He was #2 guy.
The Senate was under Democratic control and was not friendly to Nixon. The Justice Dept.? He had places to go. He didn't get the top job which he expected after Hoover, would be my guess and was pay back time. What other classified information did he possibly "leak". Would McCain consider this a break in a Code of Honor? I wonder..........
Thank you, Dan Rather. If you really gave a fart about ethics, you would know the proper course of action would be to resign in protest. But that would actually cost you something wouldn't it, so it never entered your head.
Thank you. That's been my take on this subject ever since it broke. Anybody who goes over the head of their immediate supervisor to report their immediate supervisor's misconduct to their immediate supervisor's immediate supervisor is just asking to get canned.
Felt was in a tough jam. If I had been in his shoes at the time I would have done just as he did, but in the open. He obviously couldn't have gone up the chain of command because everyone above him was suspect. So he went to the media and kept his mouth shut for 30 years.
That's the part which makes him a coward. He exposed the wrong-doing of the Nixon administration but didn't have the balls to take the credit for it. Terrorists and assassins regularly take public credit for their deeds, but Felt didn't. His motives with regard to the above-mentioned facts speak volumes about his actions between Watergate and the recent happenings.
Nixon didn't betray the public, he was trying to defeat the scum that have taken over and destroyed this country. If Woodward and Bernstein cared about the country they would have confronted the president personally with their info, rather than using it to weaken the country.