Deep Throat Helped Jolt Nation (WI Liberal Op/Ed)

Too many public servants are afraid to blow the whistle when they spot terrible waste or wrongdoing in government.

Other public employees, such as Linda Tripp, seek to expose government for self- promotion or partisanship.

Felt, revealed this week as Deep Throat from the Watergate scandal, showed through his actions more than 30 years ago and by his silence until now concern for his country and an urge to do what is right.

As the No. 2 man at the FBI, Felt had so much to lose and took such risk in leaking information about the Nixon White House to reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post.

The reporters tied Nixon to the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington. Nixon, facing impeachment for his role in a cover-up of the crime, resigned in August 1974. Forty people in government or helping the Nixon campaign were convicted of felonies.

Felt, 91, may have acted out of spite as much as honor. He is said to have been bitter over not being picked to lead the FBI. Felt also broke the law and released confidential information.

But by releasing what he did, Felt was blowing the whistle on a corrupt government that arguably was moving fast and dangerously out of control. His actions helped jolt a nation and yank its increasingly dirty politics back into line.

Can anyone who remembers Watergate imagine a world without it? Watergate was a powerful, cultural moment for the nation, re minding us that government vitally needs checks and balances.

If Felt's actions didn't cleanse American politics, they at least made politics cleaner. We can all be thankful for that.

Felt also helped spark a sea change in public perception of government. He prompted what today so many of us still hold tightly to healthy skepticism of our leaders coupled with a patriotic expectation of honesty.

People are supposed to play by the rules in America even and especially the president of the United States. Felt, a courageous public servant, helped reinforce that. The forceful impact continues to this day.

Unlike many of the key Watergate figures who were convicted of crimes or the newspaper reporters who were awarded the Pulitzer, Felt lived in relative obscurity until now. He never got a book deal. He never cashed in. His daughter only this week wondered aloud if somehow her father's late fame might somehow help pay for his grandchildren's college bills.

Felt may still be conflicted about what he did. Having spent his career in the business of keeping secrets, it's not surprising he'd agonize over having given so much away.

Yet he did the right thing. His only other option was to help with a cover-up he obviously detested.

Someone ought to clue the Old Mediot cheeerleaders 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 an emerging 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.

Before this witch hunt by the socialists designed to avenge themselves and gain monopoly power, the media was rather discrete in forgiving minor errors in foreign policy, domestic policy and personal behavior of politicians. Myriad examples abound for those who care to think about it.

It was recognized that the world is made of imperfect people, and imperfect circumstances, and that there are no perfect solutions. If a president could claim some an even mildly reasonable justification, they would not make a stink about it. Watergate (and the aftermath of McCarthy) changed that as far as Republicans were concerned. The 'Toon changed that as far as Democrats were concerned (but for myself, I was far more concerned with ChinaGate, LoralGate, his nuclear proliferation than Monica- and there, only about his purjery)

The only benefit I can see of Watergate is that Rockefeller Republicans were destroyed, and Reagan was elected after the disaster of Carter.

The only benefit I can see right now that can come of this revelation of Felt being the culprit is to belittle the "investigative" reporting business... including biased "historians" --- who were almost completely wrong about who DT was ... NIXON, though, had that right from the beginning.
`\

Too bad that because Nixon failed to uphold the law,
we are still stuck with Hanoi Jane and Hanoi Kerry.

If Nixon hadn't caved into the minority anti-war crowd
and listened to the Silent Majority
Hanoi Jane AND Hanoi Kerry
would have been prosecuted for their treason in the 70's,
while Nixon was still President.

Keep in mind that Nixon was directly involved in Viet Nam,
as Vice President, going back to at least 1955.

So Hanoi Jane AND Hanoi Kerry keep a high profile,
and always watch your yellow backs.
Nixon is NOT HERE to protect you.
You are on your own.

26 Sep 1945 - The first death of an American serviceman in Vietnam occurred.
OSS (Office of Special Operations) Major (Lieutenant Colonel) A. Peter Dewey
was killed in action by the Communist Vietminh near Hanoi.
May 1950 President Harry S Truman authorised $10 million in aid to the French for their war in Viet Nam.
By January 1951, $150 million had been given in aid.
1953-61 Dwight D. Eisenhower 34th US President
1953-61 Richard M. Nixon Vice President
1953 - The US is supporting the French in the amount of $1 billion per year--
33% of all US foreign aid--which is 80% of the total cost to the
. US Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles (under Eisenhower) first voices the 'Domino Theory':
if one country in Southeast Asia falls to the Communists, they will all fall, one by one.

12 Feb 55 - President Eisenhower's administration sends 1st 350 U.S. advisers to South Vietnam
to train the South Vietnamese Army

8 Jun 56 - The first American of record to die in Vietnam
was Air Force Tech Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr.
His son, Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, died in Vietnam Sep 7, 1965.
8 Jun 56 Has been formally recognized by the Pentagon as the first American officially to die in that war.

5 Sep 56 - President Eisenhower tells a news conference that the French are
"involved in a hopelessly losing war in Indochina" 1956 The US believed in that Ho Chi Minh would have won any election held in Viet Nam and used their influence over the government of the State of Viet Nam to ensure that the election was not held

From a Must Visit Site
Vipers Vietnam Veterans Page, A Vietnam Veteran & Proud Web Site
About Vietnam

The Vietnam war was the longest in our nation's history.
1st American advisor was killed on June 08, 1956,
and the last casualties in connection with the war occurred on May 15, 1975, during the Mayaquez incident. Approximately 2.7 million Americans served in the war zone; 300,000 were wounded and approximately 75,000 permanently disabled. Officially there are still 1,991 Americans unaccounted for from SE Asia.

Vietnam was a savage, in your face war where death could and did strike from anywhere with absolutely no warning. The brave young men and women who fought that war paid an awful price of blood, pain and suffering. As it is said: "ALL GAVE SOME ... SOME GAVE ALL"
The Vietnam war was not lost on the battlefield. No American force in ANY other conflict fought with more determination or sheer courage than the Vietnam Veteran. For the first time in our history America sent it's young men and women into a war run by inept politicians who had no grasp of military strategies and no moral will to win. They were led by "top brass" who were concerned mainly with furthering their own careers, most neither understood the nature of the war nor had a clue about the impossible mission with which they'd tasked their soldiers. And the war was reported by a self serving Media who penned stories filled with inaccuracies, deliberate omissions, biased presentations and blatant distorted interpretations because they were more interested in a story than the truth! It can be debated that we should never have fought that war. It can also be argued that the young Americans who fought so courageously, never losing a single major battle, helped in a huge way to WIN THE COLD WAR.

When the porn peddler Larry Flynt offered a million dollars to anyone who would tell of sexual escapades with a congressmen it caused a flurry in the MSM. Hundreds came forward with stories about democrat infidelities. Flynt was forced to announced the payment was only to catch Republicans. The MSM looked the other way -- and now we know why.

Felt chose Woodward and Bernstein for several reasons but the most important was lack of experience. He assumed inexperienced reporters wouldn't ask too many questions about secondary agendas. Felt knew the elders at the Post wouldn't get involved in the early stories. He wouldn't want his motives questioned by seasoned reporters. But it was an unnecessary concern.

The Post, like Larry Flynt, didn't care as long as the information hurt Republicans. Seasoned reporters, not seasoned reporters, it didn't matter. It was dirt on a Republican and that's all that mattered.

If this type of material had been leaked about a Democrat, the story would have been about outing the leaker.

Would the MSM have outed Kennedy if they knew he was jeopardizing national security by working with the Mob or assisting with voter fraud in Chicago? Had an undercover FBI official come to them with that news, they would have ignored the story. Or likes a common porn peddlers, would the MSM invoke a double standard?

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