This from The Washington Post:
By Patricia Sullivan and Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, December 19, 2008; Page A02
W. Mark Felt Sr., the associate director of the FBI during the Watergate scandal who, better known as "Deep Throat," became the most famous anonymous source in American history, died yesterday. He was 95….
As the second-highest official in the FBI under longtime director J. Edgar Hoover and interim director L. Patrick Gray, Felt detested the Nixon administration's attempt to subvert the bureau's investigation into the complex of crimes and coverups known as the Watergate scandal that ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.
He secretly guided Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward as he and his colleague Carl Bernstein pursued the story of the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee's headquarters at the Watergate office building, and subsequent revelations of the Nixon administration's campaign of spying and sabotage against its perceived political enemies.
Another little irony. Even as newspapers are collapsing left and right — without asking for a bailout from anybody, I might add — we have these little reminders of why they're important to our democracy. The day The Chicago Tribune files for bankruptcy, we learn that the crooked governor saw the paper as enough of a threat that he wanted to get rid of the editorial board. The following week, we lose Deep Throat. And Woodward writes the story. Just like that last scene in the movie, as Nixon is being inaugurated again on the TV, and in the background Woodward and Bernstein are typing away on the stories that will bring him down. Whatever happens, we keep on writing.
So far, anyway.
Did you hear the fifes playing "Yankee Doodle" in the background during that speech? Just call me the Oliver Wendell Douglass of journalism.
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We’ve lost an American hero. Too bad newspapers didn’t do their jobs when George W. Bush was lying to us left and right. Perhaps we could have been spared the last four years of his disasterous presidency.
The pity is, the newspapers don’t have the wherewithal to do the investigative reporting needed for this kind of investigation. And most of them don’t have the impartiality necessary, either.
I don’t believe there was a single informer, and I think Bernstein and Woodward made up half their story. The anonymous character of “Deep Throat” was for dramatic effect. The stories ran like a weekly serial novel from Ned Buntline.
The image formed in the minds of readers who followed this media payback to Richard Nixon was quite false. Those who were not around then, have an even fuzzier and totally wrong notion of the actual events.
The more important after-the-fact revelation was by British historians combing KGB documents in the 1990s, who found that media darling Alger Hiss was indeed a Soviet spy, and Nixon nailed him. Also, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were stone guilty.
The two reporters for the Wall Street Journal figured out the entire Watergate story, but by then, the media had “moved on”, as they say.
It is my sincerest hope as an American, that W, Cheney, and Rumsfield suffer, at the very least, the public tarnishing for their crimes in a similar way that Nixon did. The very fact the Ele Ulmler would defend Nixon, a failed president and corrupt person, demonstrates Ele’s tenuous grasp on reality.
Ele, to sponsor someone who did so much to spread disillusionment and disaster is despicable. To abandon this country’s principles in favor of your party alignment is vile. The president is not, nor will he or she ever be above the rule of law.
Your blue blood betrays you if you think otherwise. It is your type who would install a quasi-king again, if you could; you never seem to understand that those in power work for us, they are our servants, not the other way around. Others of us happily accept democracy’s promise, which is our hope and our burden, and we will never cede it to the likes of a wannabe mini-monarch and his tomorrow’s Tories.
Where are the Murrows and Frosts today and when we need them most? In a water-blogged world, I guess we must be our own champions, especially as the right has so often and so visibly been proven to be wrong.
FYI People,
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/503748.aspx
A bold, fresh piece of arrogance.
And, check this out, People:
http://www.lucifereffect.com/theologyblog.htm
Lucifer goes to church! Imagine that!
Lee has his facts correct.
The latest news item says that “Deep Throat” passed his whistle to Blagojevich before he passed away.
Any chance, bud, that we will be spared the next four years of your disastrous spelling?
Capital A, maybe it would be a good idea if everyone would stop for a moment and consider the difference between Nixon and his henchmen and Bush and 9/11. Nixon acted on pure, unadulterated political motives and even though I voted for him, when it was all brought out, watching him get on the plane and depart Washington was a cleansing sight.
Bush and I know you do not agree, acted in what he considered to be in the best interest of protecting us. As stated before, I have not agreed with a lot of what Bush has or has not done but I won’t go over the cliff with the liberal lemmings and condemn him for his actions against an enemy that has hated us for longer than the first few months Bush was in office.
Were mistakes made? Of course they were. Name one president who has not made mistakes or made the wrong decision.
Place this on a personal level if you will. Have you ever had anyone break into your home? I have. We now have security systems and video cameras around our home and I have loaded guns just in case they are needed. If I had been able to get my hands on the s.o.b.s who committed the crime before the law enforcement officers did, there is no telling what would have happened. We were fortunate indeed because within 15 minutes after an incompetent investigator left I was able to locate what was stolen by making a few phone calls to pawn shops. The material things stolen were not the main issue for my wife and I. It was the fact that someone broke into and violated our home.
On 9/11 a group of terrorists broke into our “home” and slaughtered almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens. If you can condone that action and further condone the actions of Islamic terrorists as they cut the heads off innocent captives, then no matter how much harm is inflicted on America, it will always be our fault.
The actions by the CIA and one army unit have been internationally condemned but little or nothing said about the heinous acts and past actions of most of the loudest critics from other countries.
I don’t want torture to be made official or legal by the United States but on the other hand, waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and some other methods that are psychological in nature do not measure up to methods used by our enemies, used even before Abu Gharib or GITMO was even brought up. Where was your outrage then?
I DO have a good bit off outrage,but I’m not into politics and was probably yelling at the maid.
On 9/11 a group of terrorists broke into our “home” and slaughtered almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens. If you can condone that action and further condone the actions of Islamic terrorists as they cut the heads off innocent captives, then no matter how much harm is inflicted on America, it will always be our fault.
Posted by: Bart | Dec 21, 2008 3:29:37 PM
Bart, two years ago, my home was one of three in my neighborhood to be targeted by a couple of thieves (which you inexplicably call terrorists). I shot at one of them with my Taurus 1911. It was the closest gun possible at that moment, or else I would have grabbed even more firepower.
You see, the key to that anecdote is that I shot at the thief and not his neighbor, which is effectively what we did in Iraq. We went all “teenage tantrum” on an easy target — or what incompetents like Bush and backers deemed as “easy” — and as a result of that very poor, emotionally driven decision, we chose the wrong bullseye to blast back.
Saddam Hussein, though heinous he was, wasn’t the culprit in this case, and there has been no evidence to verify his culpability. All evidence in the case would point to us attacking Afghanistan or even Saudi Arabia (Yahweh/Allah forbid!). Evidence guides our actions in this country. We do still operate under and our systems are based upon the rule of law, are they not?
Why don’t you conservatives who still back Bush get that point? For eight years, this administration’s actions have been nothing short of Constitution-crushing, failed post-modern colonialism emotionally fueled by a preventable tragedy and bankrolled by a somnambulent public that is either too lazy, too entertainment addicted or too distracted to foist an objection.
You should take Bush’s failures personally, too, because if you are an American citizen, your tax money was used to sponsor this debacle which we’ll all have trouble explaining to our grandkids one day. Crazy me…I do tend to take the misappropration of funds to heart, especially ones linked to me, especially those that could have gone to better causes like helping our fellow citizens to recover from two, real national tragedies.
Please don’t deign to pretend that the money, attention and manpower allocated for this war is mutually exclusive from our Hurricane Katrina “reponse” because that would be blatant ignorance, especially when you consider how national emergency response funds have been cut deeply to “bolster” our still greatly flawed terrorist response actions. Also note the great irony of how veterans’ benefits have been sliced and diced under the Bush administration, all the while more veterans desperately in need of those funds are being produced by the dozens.
You suggest a claim that Nixon acted out of evil, while Bush’s actions were “mistakes” (incompetence). If that position is to be believed, I would certainly hate to witness “evil Bush” because “dumb Bush” has created quite the quagmires all on his fumbling lonesome.
You want to excuse the atrocities committed by our armed forces, but you want to honor America at the same time. That position is illogical because, as I stated before, American action has been and always should be guided by the rule of law. To veer from that guidance is to reject what is it to be an American. Besides, that goes back to my point that we should have never been there as dedicated young men and women have been placed in morally compromising positions by leadership that is not worth the dust on their boots.
If you were referring to Blackwater representatives and their loss of life while in action, then we can stop all debate here. Blackwater operatives are little more than hated Hessians who are spreading their own brand of terrorism in the name of America. They are mad-dog scum and in no way should their actions and deaths be as venerated as our men and women who demonstrate true discipline and devotion by making the choice to become American soldiers and seamen.
If you have read this far, I appreciate you taking time to consider all of my points. My outrage concerning US government actions is documented on any blog entry concerning those topics and goes back years on this forum. I hold my country and all Americans to a higher measure than anyone else in the world. As such, that means there will be times when I criticize my country when she is acting out of character and hypocritically.
By all means, stop this conservative “everything is always our fault” whining. Who are these strawmen blaming us for “everything”, and why do you even care if they did exist?
We’re Americans! Man up! Are you so insecure in your positions that these naysayers hurt your widdle feewings? Sheesh…
I was brought up to believe that type of critical interest is what a patriot should engage in as it is his or her duty to the country. We owe it to our ancestors and our posterity. I can’t just wrap myself in a flag and blind myself to the truth of matters. Such myopia has to be comforting and affirmative on a personal level, but is a corruption for our shared national vision and history.