The revelation today that Mark Felt could very well be the “unnamed” source known as Deep Throat for Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s sensational Watergate exclusives has set off a wave of nostalgia among Nixon haters and a wave of revulsion among many others.
First, it appears that Woodward had contact recently with Felt looking to make a media extravaganza out of the revelation:
The Vanity Fair article said Felt’s family had convinced him that his actions during Watergate were heroic and worthy of acknowledgment and he should come forward. His daughter had spoken to Woodward, who visited Felt in Santa Rose in 1999, by phone more than a half-dozen times to discuss a potential joint announcement, Vanity Fair said.But Woodward would often begin those conversations with a caveat, the magazine said, saying, ‘’Just because I’m talking to you, I’m not admitting that he is who you think he is.’‘
Couple this with both Bernstein and Woodward’s failure to immediately squelch the story and you have the makings of a pretty interesting news day.
That being said, what this will do is open a whole bunch of unhealed wounds on both sides of the Watergate divide. Anytime another set of Nixon White House tapes has been released by the National Archives, a veritable feeding frenzy by the press ensues in which Nixon’s every off the cuff utterance is given front page treatment. The themes are familiar; Nixon the racist, Nixon the anti-Semite, Nixon the madman.
Nixon may have been all of those and worse. But what doesn’t get much attention are the recent release of the Johnson and Kennedy tapes that reveal some pretty nasty stuff about those fellows too. When it does make the news (Johnson’s tapes have been written about by Presidential historian and TV talking head Michael R. Beschloss) Presidential peculiarities are chalked up to the “complexity” of the men, not any inherent evil present in their personalities.
With Nixon, it’s different. Any revelation about his Presidency is viewed as further justification for his fall from grace. What’s never addressed in this orgy of self congratulations is the very real role played by the national press in bringing down a President.
In short, unelected elites decided Nixon was guilty of not just the Watergate coverup, but a wide variety of crimes that necessitated his removal from office.
How much better would a Senate trial have been? At least we would have gotten the satisfaction of having representatives of the people remove him. And the consequences that have flowed from the realization of the mainstream press that they can make or break or even remove President’s have been dire. For going on 30 years, every journalist in America has dreamed of being the next Woodward and Bernstein. The fame, the riches, the adulation attendant to bringing down a President has motivated more than one journalist to make every “scandal” in Washington into a “gate.” Koreagate, Contragate, bimbogate…the list is endless.
This is unhealthy for the republic as well as being ridiculous.
If Mark Felt is indeed Deep Throat he probably should be applauded for bringing the corruption surrounding Watergate to the attention of the people through the Washington Post. But like all stories regarding Nixon, there’s very little context to go with the condemnation.
Will historians 100 years from now see things a little differently? Will they take into account that there thousands of Americans actively working to overthrow the government, who believed that by fomenting violence they could achieve a socialist paradise? Will they see that leaks from high government officials on issues like arms control were not only a threat to national security but a threat to human life on the planet as well? Will they see the shortsightedness of the press in their relentless pursuit of a President who they didn’t like personally?
I don’t know. I’m not an historian a hundred years from now. What I do know is that Nixon governed in the most difficult time in this nation’s history since the Civil War. There were thousands of people in the streets cheering for victory by an enemy that was killing American boys on the battlefield (We hadn’t yet become inured to this spectacle. When it happens today we pay it no mind because we’re used to American citizens wishing for the death of American servicemen). The social fabric of the nation was fraying at the edges not just because of Viet Nam but because the pent up demand for equality from so many deserving minorities was spilling out into the streets and rocking the establishment. Add to that Nixon’s secretive, almost paranoid personality that was manipulated by sycophantic aides – small, petty men of much ambition and little talent – who played on the President’s desperation as he tried to understand and deal with the maelstrom threatening to suck the country into a de facto civil war.
It’s too easy to forget that this is the way it was. And while Nixon should never be excused, I have a sneaky suspicion that historians of the future will indeed put his many accomplishments and spectacular failures into a perspective that neither his supporters nor detractors could possibly do today.
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS:
Captains Quarters
Wizbang
Political Teen has video of Felt’s grandson.
UPDATE…WITH A BULLET
WOODWARD, BRADLEE, AND BERNSTEIN HAVE CONFIRMED THAT FELT WAS IN FACT DEEP THROAT.
1:25 pm
Deep Throat is Mark Felt
The second of the FBI was the person who leaked the information.
From the AP
NEW YORK —A former FBI official claims he was “Deep Throat,” the long-anonymous source who leaked secrets about President Nixon’s Watergate coverup to The Washington…
2:49 pm
There is one very glaring flaw in your reasoning here, Mr. Superhawk. If Mr. Felt is the publicity hound you claim he is, why would he have waited all this time for his moment to bask in the spotlight?
Perhaps the real cause of your discomfort is Mr Felt’s decision to go public now? Certainly it will bring to many peoples’ minds a time when the media was far more courageous than it is now, and that even presidents weren’t safe from the relentless inquiry of dedicated journalists interested in uncovering the truth.
We certainly could use someone like him now.
3:14 pm
Deep Throat
The other day at Jawapalooza in D.C. this chick comes over to the table and starts talking to us. After a few minutes she asks what we’re doing there and so I say, “I’m deep throat.” For some odd reason…
3:44 pm
Just once, I wish you’d read my post before making an inane, stupid comment on it.
WOODWARD was suggesting the media extravaganza, ninny. And I said what my “real cause” of discomfort was. Deal with it.
5:27 pm
And you brought up Woodward because? Oh, never mind.
5:55 pm
Out of the shadows at last – Deep Throat
But Joan is quoted as saying that “Bob Woodward’s gonna get all the glory for this, but we could make at least enough money to pay some bills, like the debt I’ve run up for the kids’ education. Let’s do it for the family.” Now, that is heartwarm…
10:35 pm
I think Franklin makes a valid point about Felt waiting so long to come out of the closet.
Interesting post, on the whole. I don’t agree with all of it. Somewhere around half of it. I certainly do agree that Nixon’s positive contributions don’t get the respect they deserve.
I got hooked on politics listening to the House debate Nixon’s impending Impeachment on a little crystal radio that was my prize possession at the ripe age of 10. It was confusing and a bit scary. I mean, he was the President, after all. And, to a 10 year old, the President is a pretty massive authority figure.
I remember thinking that it seemed clear that he’d done something very wrong and probably deserved what was happening to him. But, at the same time I was sad because he’d done good things too – like breaking the ice with China – and none of that seemed to get the credit my young mind thought it ought to. Of course I was really just parroting what the radio commentators were saying. But, it was my grand entrance into the life of a political junky. I’ll never forget it.
11:34 pm
W. Mark Felt Finally Admits, ‘I Am A Crook!’
Well, it seems that ‘Deep Throat’ has finally come forward. Surprise, surprise — it was W. Mark Felt, #2 man at the FBI during the Nixon administration. I’m sure that Felt committing federal felonies had nothing to do with the …
5:32 am
Mark Felt = Deep Throat
Former FBI Number 2 Mark Felt, now 91, has admitted in a Vanity Fair article that he wass, indeed, Deep Throat, the inside source that helped Woodward and Bernstein write the story of Watergate.
10:48 pm
W. Mark Felt is a great American hero. Prior to J. Edgar Hoover’s death, Nixon had unsuccessfully tried to use the FBI as his personal political police. From the formation of the FBI, only two Presidents, Nixon and Kennedy, had tried to use the FBI in this manner. Mr. Hoover stopped Kennedy and, until his death, stopped Nixon. (A fact acknowledged by Jack Anderson, who was, perhaps, Mr. Hoover’s greatest detractor.)
After Mr. Hoover died, Nixon named L. Patrick Grey as Director of the FBI. Grey was a political hack who would do Nixon’s bidding. Mark Felt as the No. 2 man in the FBI and the top career FBI man, was loyal to Mr. Hoover’s legacy and to the FBI. However, unlike Mr. Hoover, Mark Felt did not have the position, popularity or political power to just tell Nixon “no.” Nixon controlled the Justice Department and, thus, presentations to grand juries. Further, at least one FBI official had been transferred out of the Washington, D.C. office when he tried to go through “proper channels” in protesting the administration’s interference in the Watergate investigation. Lacking other means, Mark Felt simply did what he had to do to keep Nixon from misusing the FBI.
Pat Buchanan’s comments have been way off base. He has to have known that this was a fight between Nixon, who was intent on using the FBI for political gain, and Mr. Hoover and Mark Felt, who were intent on stopping him. It is sophistry to suggest that Felt only went to Woodward out of spite for not being chosen as Mr. Hoover’s successor.
Comments about Felt authorizing wiretaps of “Vietnam War protestors” are also way off base. They are also offensive. The wiretaps were on members of the Weather Underground. The Weather Underground was a terrorist off-shoot of the SDS, which bombed buildings and killed people. The political and legal environment made it very difficult to track and infiltrate such groups, and it had been only a few years since wiretaps did not require a court order. My uncle was an FBI agent in Soviet Counter-Intelligence at that time, and my father, as a ex-agent, received materials from the FBI and the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, which I read. I can tell you that the Weather Underground also had strong Soviet ties and a commitment to overthrow the United States Government.
Some may disagree with Mark Felt’s tactics, but it is wrong to impugn his motives in the wiretaps. I would also suggest that what Felt did was absolutely necessary to protect the country from more terrorist bombings. I would also note that the convictions were on appeal when President Reagan pardoned him. There is some doubt as to whether the convictions would have been upheld.
Mark Felt’s book is very enlightening in this matter. In addition, as noted, I am from an FBI family. My father is an ex-agent and my uncle was an agent in Washington, D.C. at the time all of this occurred.