Given all that history has learned about Watergate, it’s remarkable that some people would see Mark Felt, the former FBI insider aka “Deep Throat,” as having been wrong to tell the Washington Post what he knew about the burglary and White House cover-up. Felt’s actions surely were motivated, at least in part, because he’d been passed over to succeed J. Edgar Hoover as FBI director. But Felt deserves credit for doing the right thing in an administration full of people doing the wrong thing. As Post reporter Bob Woodward said of Felt, who died Thursday: “This is a man who did his duty to the Constitution.”
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58 Comments
Maybe or maybe not. Let future historians examine the Watergate situation to see who was right and who was wrong.
I like Nixon but still though it was right that he fall for doing wrong. The president of the United States is suppose to be a guiding light not above the law. But that was a different time, people thought the same as I did back then. Now its a different time, we cheered the likes of Ollie North who unlike G. Gordon kept quiet. And we no long care anymore if the President is honorable to the country.
Back in the early 1970’s when the Watergate break-in occured, most of America read the daily revelations in the newspapers. I read them every morning in the Kansas City Times/Star newsopaper usually in a Winchell’s Donut shop at 75th and Metcalf in Overland Park.
At that time, I came to the conclusion that the situation was primarily caused by John Mitchell, then U.S. Attorney General, and John Dean, some kind of attorney to President Nixon. These two men, not President Nixon, attended all the conspiratal meetings. These two high ranking fellows could have and should have stood up and said, “NO, THIS BURGLARY IS NOT RIGHT FOR THE OFFICE OF THE U.S. PRESIDENT TO BE INVOLVED IN.” They didn’t and the rest of the Watergate story is history.
Later at the 1976 Republican Convention in Kansas City, I noticed John Dean standing next to me. I turned and told him I thought he was a traitor to the U.S. Needless to say he moved to another location to stand.
There has been some very good books on Watergate. The best in my opinion is one called ‘Silent Coup’.
Sadly there are no good Americans like Felt anymore or we might not be broke today in a war. Republicans won’t police their own anymore and do what is right for the country.
Good morning P-Mom!
If you would like to take a break for a week or so, or if you go on vacation I’m sure I could fill in for you here on the BLOG.
I’ve pretty much got your ‘hate-bush-irrationally-republicans-are-corrupt-and-or-stupid’ remarks down pat.
I think history will be kinder to Nixon that we are. Unquestionably, Watergate was a real mess, but Nixon was a great statesman and we have him to thank for normalizing relations with China somewhat. At that point in history, China was a war looking for a time and a place.
Will this be the next scandal we’ll follow? It is a different time and we seem hardened to the shenanigans and corruption.
————
Bush Insider Who Planned To Tell All Killed In Plane Crash: Non-Profit Demands Full Federal Investigation
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20081220/pl_usnw/bush_insider_who_planned_to_tell_all_killed_in_plane_crash__non_profit_demands_full_federal_investigation
“HLP” ==
“…books on Watergate. The best in my opinion is one called ‘Silent Coup’.”
That figures.
Its thesis: that Richard Nixon was an innocent victim of John Dean’s desperate attempt to protect his wife Maureen’s reputation as an alleged former call girl.
Patently absurd in scope and detail.
A bit of trivia: supposedly Felt never used the term “follow the money” as deep throat famously did in the movie. This term was a dramatic device created in the adaptation of the book All the President’s Men for the screen.
I would point out JWink, with all due respect, the record shows many times Richard M. Nixon could have stopped the cover-up at least and possibly the initial illegality. But he did not, and the rest was history. He was an interesting, but deeply flawed man.
We see the arrogance of Nixon in the governance of Dick Cheney – the real 43rd president. The legal accounting of this second installation is yet to come.
The trouble with Mark Felt is that he failed to stand up like a man to present his information to the press and to people of the United States. After all, Mark Felt was in a pretty safe position as assistant director of the FBI at the time. But instead he chose to flit around in the shadows secreting his information to the press.
The reason? Mark Felt wanted to keep his job at the FBI so he could get his retirement. There was never any proof that he or Washington Post reporter, Bob Woodward, were being tailed by anybody. But this scenerio was strongly hinted at in the movie. In fact it was the main danger theme of the movie.
What was the name of that movie? Was it “The President’s Men”?
As I recall, that movie contained a lot of fabrication but, unfortunately, most Americans accepted it as the true story of Watergate.
Steven Davis: Sorry, I believe our comments crossed when being submitted. I think we more or less agree the movie, “All the President’s ….” was flawed and contained a lot of lies to gain audience favor.
On the other hand, in the early 1970’s, I read the daily lengthy transcripts to try to understand what had happened.
I strongly felt that Attorney General John Mitchell and the president’s attorney, John Dean, could have and should have said “NO DICE ON THIS PROPOSAL.”
This led to the famous question, “What did Nixon know, and when did he know it?” He wasn’t in on the meetings and neither were his two assistants, John Ehrlichman, nor the other fellow whose name escapes me right now. After all, these fellows had a government to run and wind down the Vietnam War and its aftermath.
This’ll be fun.
The CONs’ Christmas gift to us all!
Watergate revisionism!
It was all John Dean’s fault and Felt was just disgruntled and poor Dick Nixon was a victim!
Thanks, Santa!
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Nixon’s other top assistant was H.R. “Bob” Haldeman.
lindainks55
Posted December 22, 2008 at 7:58 am | Permalink
Will this be the next scandal we’ll follow? It is a different time and we seem hardened to the shenanigans and corruption.
___________________________________________________
It does seem a little suspicious, doesn’t it? Kind of a variation of the “CIA heart attack”.
Wellstone, anyone?
The die hard repukes are still apologizing for nixon almost thirty five years after he’s been out of office.
I think that gives us a hint how long they will be in denial about worst.president.ever.
As George Jones would say “they stopped loving him today…”
JWink,
I think Nixon could have saved himself very easily. He chose not to. He could have started out by saying “Mistakes were made” and “I’ve taken these steps to deal with the wrong-doers in my administration”. He did not do that and he paid the price for that misjudgement.
Was the guy you can’t think Colson (sp?)? He was the guy who had a poster on his wall that said “when you have by the balls, their hearts and minds, soon follow.” I think he became a minister during or after prison.
This will date me, but I was in college during the hearings which were televised every day. We bored students would watch them in between classes. I remember Sam Ervin who led the committee going off with these long winded quotes from the Old Testament; stuff like, “And then the Cannonites came out of the highlands and intermixed with the people of lowlands” [not a direct quote, just made up]. We kids would look at each other and wonder what in the heck he was trying to say.
Erwin was definitely not the Rube he pretended to be. Interestingly he was in on the investigation of Joseph McCarthy, too. I wonder if Ann Coulter hated him for that?
See this interesting bio summary:
http://www.answers.com/topic/ervin-sam
We need Barbara Jordan and her moral authority!
It sure would be nice to have someone like her say this today.
“My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.”
Now days, you have to swear to bastardize the constitution to get elected. You cant find someone on either side of the aisle to put constitution above polling.
No one as good as her could get elected today.
“ksfarmgrrl” –
Barbara Jordan didn’t just make me proud to be an American, she made me proud to be a fellow human being.
A possible “Deep Throat” for the current admin just crashed his plane in Ohio.
Qui Bono?
Yeah. When’s the last time a congress critter made you feel either way?
Certainly not moran or tiahrt.
When she retired, another fine human and public servant, Mickey Leland, took her seat. He was special too, but died too young in a small plane crash.
Wonder what he was doing that got him “Wellstoned”?
Just like Rove’s IT guru.
Steven Davis: You mentioned Senator Joseph McCarthy. He was able to bully and intimidate many influential people in business (the movie industry) and government by hinting or outright calling them communists. Ultimately one person stood up to Senator McCarthy and his two wimp assistants, Roy Cohn and G. David Shine.
That was the special counsel for the Army, Joseph Welch. In the Army vs McCarthy hearings, over the fact that Shine did not report for military duty, in front of national TV, muggy Joseph Welch stared at Joseph McCarthy and said, “SIR, HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY?”
Those simple words by someone with courage effectively ended the saga of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.
Turns out, “Silent Coup” still has it’s old web site up.
Among its promised “revelations” is :
“The reporter who has concealed his real military background and long-standing Pentagon and White House contacts, and how he protected them – and their motives – with the cover name “Deep Throat.”
No wonder “HLP” likes it so much; it’s wrong and patently absurd.
Noted without comment.
http://www.woio.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=3258550&h1=Pilot%20Killed%20In%20Plane%20Crash%20Thought%20Plane%20Was%20Sabotaged&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=57100&LaunchPageAdTag=News%20-%20Hard%20News&activePane=info&rnd=295600
“This is a man who did his duty to the Constitution.”
Sort of a chicken shi- way of revealing wrong doing for a public servant.
Felt was a true American hero. We need more men like him – and more journalists who will do the digging.
The sad thing with Nixon is that he had the potential to be a truly great president. He did a great deal of good during his time in office; it is sad that he is best known for the bad parts (dragging out Nam and Watergate).
The more I read about Felt, the more I see he was both an idealist and a disgruntled employee.
He was of that generation that grew up infatuated with Hoover’s FBI Mythology; the smartest, the bravest, the straight-shootin’est Americans there ever were. And Hoover was a narcissistic public relations genius. I’ve known several former (and a few current) FBI agents. The old guys, the ones of Felt’s generation, are the best.
They went through their business in the 50s and 60s having a lot of moral compunctions — such as how “communism” was J. Edgar’s fetish even as he steadfastly denied there was anything like the Mafia; tracking Martin Luther King and real and imagined “radicals” during the 60s. A lot of the true believers really resented that Nixon’s butt-boy L. Patrick Gray besmirched the Bureau.
Felt and a lot of FBI lifers of that era wanted to go back to being the good guys again.
When Nixon overtly put a political hack atop the FBI, those idealistic former Junior G-Men who bought all of Hoover’s propaganda in the 30s were faced with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FChEGL1BUY&feature=related
Arlo nailed it in 1968 with “The Pause of Mister Claus.”
Merry Christmas.
JWink–
The idea that Nixon “didn’t know” about the break-in is something that would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
If Nixon did know, then he was a criminal. If Nixon didn’t know, then he was criminally negligent.
Same with Reagan during Iran-Contra. It doesn’t matter what he knew and when he knew it.
He SHOULD HAVE KNOWN . . . and if he didn’t, it’s no excuse. That in itself is equally damning because it means he’s out of control.
And we musn’t forget Clinton and Mena, AK.
Moved a lot of cola, he did.
Anyone remember Martha Mitchell?
#
Pleefer
Posted December 22, 2008 at 12:24 pm | Permalink
And we musn’t forget Clinton and Mena, AK.
#
Pleefer
Posted December 22, 2008 at 12:25 pm | Permalink
Moved a lot of cola, he did.
_________________________________________________
Proof?
If that were true, why isn’t Clinton in jail? Kind of blows your accusation.
Whatever Felt’s motives, he did the right thing. It’s this loyalty to the king thing that has dragged America down.
The question you asked is very good. Next question (and answer), “why was he a President?”
http://whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/MENA/mena.html
But then again, everything is a conspiracy theory. Such as the definition of “is”, what we thought was the definition is now in question.
Exciting times we live in.
Can someone explain why a man whose “life is in danger” allows the legal team of those he would finger to represent him?
From Linda’s link:
On October 31, Mr. Connell appeared before a federal judge in Ohio after being subpoenaed in a federal lawsuit investigating the rigging of the 2004 election under the direction of Karl Rove. The judge ordered Mr. Connell to testify under oath at a deposition on November 3rd, the day before the presidential election. Velvet Revolution received confidential information that the White House was extremely concerned about Mr. Connell talking about his illegal work for the White House and two Bush/Cheney 04 attorneys were dispatched to represent him.
Let’s see, if vince foster had told someone his life was in danger, would the rw maybe have thought the clinton’s were behind it? Especially if foster was being ordered to give a deposition into wrongdoing by his employer, the president?
Probably. But that’s not my question.
Would Foster have had Clinton’s legal team represent him in a deposition against Clinton?
Sure, if they share a common interest. And, were they representing him, or were they friends of the court, or entering the fray uninvited?
The article states:
Velvet Revolution received confidential information that the White House was extremely concerned about Mr. Connell talking about his illegal work for the White House and two Bush/Cheney 04 attorneys were dispatched to represent him.
—————————————————-
Now if it’s me and I’ve done something illegal on the direction of my employer I am going to seek counsel to protect myself. Whether I believe my life to be in danger or just keep myself out of prison.
Seems odd. But that’s just me.
The attys were dispatched by the W.H., I’d presume that would be to try and keep the guy from having to talk.
I read that to be attorney’s of the 04 campaign. And to represent him. Why are you going to have counsel represent you that is going to silence you vs. protect your interest? Especially if his life was in danger?
about his illegal work for the White House and two Bush/Cheney 04 attorneys were dispatched to represent him.
Must have been a typo…should read “two Bush/Cheney 04 thugs were dispatched to kill him.”
God bless America and goddamn the Republicans.
That sounds good…I’ll say it again…
GODDAMN THE REPUBLICANS!
Sounds like the w.h. dispatched the lawyers before using plan b, and dispatching the hit men.
Re: Airplane. Check the gas cap. In a good percentage of private aircraft running out of gas fatalities, someone forgot to put the gascap back on.
Wellstone plane crash=The Beechcraft King Air A100 plane crashed into dense forest about two miles from the Eveleth airport, while operating under instrument flight rules. The charter plane Wellstone was traveling in had no flight data recorders. Both pilots tested negative for drug or alcohol use. Icing, though widely reported on in following days, was considered and eventually rejected as a significant factor in the crash. The Board judged that while cloud cover might have prevented the flight crew from seeing the airport, icing did not affect the airplane’s performance during the descent.[15]
The NTSB later determined that the likely cause of the accident was the failure of both the pilot and copilot to maintain a safe minimum airspeed, leading to a stall from which they could not recover.
Mcconnel’s plane crash-Top internet strategist Michael Connell, 45, was the only person in his single-engine private plane that crashed three miles short of the Akron-Canton airport on Friday night as he prepared to land after flying from College Park, Maryland, close to Washington.
Looks like the rove team used the same m.o., take them out a few miles short of the landing runway.
Maybe their fuel gauges were tampered with.
There’ll be fueling records; tank sizes are known. Etc.
Probably tampered with the forward air speed indicator, so the pilots thought they were going fast enough to prevent stalling.
Figures. Plenty of conspiracy theory nuttery on both sides of the divide here.
How ’bout, like, uh, EVIDENCE?
But then, that’s the beauty of conspiracy nuttiness, isn’t it? The lack of evidence is itself evidence of the conspiracy.
(cue scary music . . . )
Eh it gives Oliver Stone at least one more movie to fail with.
“GMC70″ —
If you want to attack kooky conspiracy theories, check out “Silent Coup,” which “HLP” earlier today declared was the best of all Watergate books.
Nixon was innocent of everything, according to “Silent Coup.” It was all John Dean’s fault to protect the reputation of his wife Maureen who was allegedly a call-girl.
No plumbers, no Howard Hughes influence peddling, no 18-minute Gap, no Oval Office tapes, no Frost/Nixon interviews, no memoirs of all the individuals involved… nope Watergate was all John Dean’s fault because his girlfriend (later his wife) was a slut!
In the entire time I was a line attendant at a small air port rarely did I ever encounter a pilot who tempted fate. It is standard procedure for the plane to be “topped off” before take off. And it is true that making sure the gas cap is on tightly is a high priority in both fueling and preflight.
I don’t know, if murder was a standard practice for this administration I would imagine there would not be enough caskets to fill the orders for their enemies. I can not rule it out since they seem to think that most people are too stupid to see their efforts. Or for that matter to care as it is simpler to ignore the obvious.
Ohio election atty’s email sent to mukasey req. witness protection for connell. Hmmm, curioser and curioser.
The complete, short email, sent today from Arnebeck to AG Mukasey, follows in full below…
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 10:51 AM
To: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Subject: Report of Rove threats against witness Michael Connell
Dear Attorney General Mukasey:
We have been confidentially informed by a source we believe to be credible that Karl Rove has threatened Michael Connell, a principal witness we have identified in our King Lincoln case in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, that if he does not agree to “take the fall” for election fraud in Ohio, his wife Heather will be prosecuted for supposed lobby law violations.This appears to be in response to our designation of Rove as the principal perpetrator in the Ohio Corrupt Practices Act/RICO claim with respect to which we issued document hold notices last Thursday to you and to the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform. See: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6189 and http://www.archive.org/details/ElectionFraudInOhioCourtCase.
I have informed court chambers and am in the process of informing the Ohio Attorney General’s and US Attorney’s offices in Columbus for the purpose, among other things, of seeking protection for Mr. Connell and his family from this reported attempt to intimidate a witness.
Concurrently herewith, I am informing Mr. Conyers and Mr. Kucinich in connection with their Congressional oversight responsibilities related to these matters.
Because of the serious engagement in this matter that began in 2000 of the Ohio Statehouse Press Corps, 60 Minutes, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, C-Span and Jim VandeHei, and the public’s right to know of gross attempts to subvert the rule of law, I am forwarding this information to them, as well.
Cliff Arnebeck, Attorney
###-###-####
Cell ###-###-####
cc: Robert Fitrakis, Esq.
Henry Eckhart, Esq
Bush had no power to pardon. Sometimes if you can’t use a carrot, you have to use the stick!
POST-SHOW UPDATE: Arnebeck joined us for the first half-hour of the show and dropped a few interesting details during our discussion. Among them: 1) Bush can’t pardon someone convicted under a civil RICO case, which is what Arnebeck is compiling. (Also, can’t remember if it came up during the interview, but as some have suggested that Rove simply invoke Executive Privilege to avoid being deposed in this case, Exec Privilege does not come into play in such a case. It only refers to Congressional testimony.) 2) Connell had agreed to meet with the House Judiciary Comm. several months ago, but so far Judiciary hasn’t followed up. 3) Arnebeck makes a tantalizing reference to the finding in the Paula Jones case that sitting Presidents may be deposed in civil cases. More detail on those points and others in the audio interview.
Download MP3 or listen online here…
The ‘publicans final gift to Nixon has been to relieve him of the stigma of “worst president ever.”