Thanks Deep Throat!

[Big Blue Machine]

Thanks Mark, you made history. All the world is grateful. It's ironic that everyone that went to jail is attacking Felt for being a traitor, but they were creepy anyway.

[Shakeyhands]

I'm amazed at how the talking heads on Fox are attacking him...

O'Reilly

Gibson

Hume

and Asman

All negative articles about him

[theloniusfleabag]

Dear BBM,

It's ironic that everyone that went to jail is attacking Felt for being a traitor,

What does this tell you about where their values are? It is like the Mob turning on a snitch. Sure, loyalty is an admirable value, but it isn't so great for the rest of us when you work for criminals. BTW, Good to see you back.

[Big Blue Machine]

How can he be called a traitor by a bunch of crooks?

[August1991]

With a nickname like Deep Throat, and a line like "follow the money", and then an impersonation by Hal Holbrook in a Redford/Hoffman movie, Felt was bound to seem important - particularly to people who come late to the whole sordid story.

I happen to think that the importance of "Deep Throat" is vastly overrated, as well as the importance of Bob Woodward, and Bernstein. (By all accounts, Woodward has a large ego. I suspect Felt does too.)

I think it's wrong to say that Woodward/Bernstein 'brought down' a President and even more wrong to say that Deep Throat was critical in Woodward/Bernstein's work. Early on, Nixon knew what Felt was doing, and had even pegged why Felt was doing it. IOW, Felt was another (minor) piece on the chess table.

----

I don't know if Felt did the right thing by meeting Woodward and confirming information. I do think that many minor bureaucrats now feel important and honourable when they slip brown envelopes into mail chutes. [i think both Duceppe and John Reynolds have said that they knew two years ago everything that Gomery has heard now.]

One side of me says that if you accept a job as deputy head of the FBI, with all the perks and advantages that brings, then implicitly you've signed a contract with "Power". If you disagree with "Power", then you should resign.

But another side of me says that "Power" - coercion might be a better word - relies on sullen acquiescence. Governments are weakened when bureaucrats leak. And that is a good thing, I think.

What is one to do? Rudolph Hess parachuted into Scotland.

By all acounts, Mark Felt was a successful bureaucrat. During his life, he derived his status entirely from his position, or membership in an organization, and not from any personal endeavour. It was the FBI that made it possible for Mark Felt to enter history as Deep Throat. Without his FBI badge, would we know of Mark Felt?

By all accounts, Bob Woodward and Richard Nixon did things their own way and their successes or failures were their own doing.

Nixon often quoted Teddy Roosevelt's Man in the Arena speech:

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

I think there is a fundamental difference between a person who goes alone into the arena and a person who only accepts to enter the arena as a member of an organization. It seems to me that if you enter alone, then you can walk as you want when you want. But if you enter as a member of a group, well that's why you are there. You walk in tandem with those around you.

For political reasons, Nixon often used sports metaphors. Well, golf and tennis are individual sports; hockey and football are team sports.

[newbie]

Well, in 1972/73 if you're a bureaucrat and you want to report corruption where do you go? Felt couldn't go the attorney general as Mitchell was a crook as well. Couldn't go to Pat Gray as his boss had orders to keep out of it. So take an ambitious 2nd in command with a hate for Nixon to begin with and voila! Deep Throat in a parking garage. As far as the two young reporters and Felt deserving all the credit, I don't know. They certainly got things rolling, and the tapes did the rest.

[Big Blue Machine]

I don't think Mark Felt was the main part of Watergate but he certainly played a big role in letting the Post' know that they are on the right track. But he wasn't the main part, they are alot of other people, like Judge Sirca, and Senator Ervin.

[Technocrat]

IMR do you actually think its 'moral' to protect people doing 'immoral/illegal' acts?

There is a reason why we have whistleblower legislation. If more people broke the code of silence i can see some benificial things happening, powerful bodies becomming more accountable to the people they serve... hmmm sounds mighty democratic to me.

[shesgg]

Buchanan: Linda Tripp as Heroic as Felt

Former Nixon aide Pat Buchanan said Wednesday that the same mainstream reporters who paint newly revealed "Deep Throat" source Mark Felt as a hero couldn't find a good word to say about Linda Tripp, whose secret tapes led to the impeachment of President Clinton.

"The only reason Mark Felt is a hero now [is because the person he helped] destroy was Richard Milhous Nixon," Buchanan told WABC Radio's John Gambling.

Pat Buchanan's Comments

Linda wasn't as reluctant as Mark Felt. He stayed in the background for years and even back then, he didn't tell Woodward and Berstein everything rather, he pointed them in the right direction if they were going astray.

Linda made sure she was the center of the story, she blabbed everything and kept on until people were pretty sick of listening to her.

I don't see her as any kind of hero. I guess I don't think Felt is a hero either but he was certainly more effective by letting the journalists take center stage.

[Big Blue Machine]

He was a big part and thanks, but maybe not a hero. I don't think it's fair that Felt is accused as a traitor from a bunch of crooks. They don't have credibility, even though I saw G. Gordon Liddy on Fox news (why I was watching it, I don't know) saying I have lots of credibility on the issue.

[shesgg]

He was a big part and thanks, but maybe not a hero. I don't think it's fair that Felt is accused as a traitor from a bunch of crooks. They don't have credibility, even though I saw G. Gordon Liddy on Fox news (why I was watching it, I don't know) saying I have lots of credibility on the issue.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I heard him say it.

I think that night was Fox's highest ratings this quarter.

[Big Blue Machine]

Watching FOX news makes you stupid. But that's another thing. FOX news is basically the government's progranda machine, same with CNN.

[shesgg]

I was watching Imus when Woodward and Berstein were on, they mentioned the Buchanan comments and Woodward blew it off saying Buchanan was a propagandist.

Seems propaganda is a way of life for Bush and friends, Fox and Company, ex-Nixon crooks, etc., etc...