Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Deep Throat: Hero or Traitor?
By now I think everyone is aware that perhaps the best kept Washington secret, who was the legendary Woodward and Bernstein source referred to only as Deep Throat, has been answered. Today, we now know that Deep Throat was indeed, as many had expected, Mark Felt, the Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and agent in charge of the Watergate investigation.
It has been suggested by several commentators, including, but not limited to, former White House chief of staff to both Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, David Gergen, that Deep Throat did not act honorably in revealing the information to reporters from the Washington Post. Well, I for one think that is an interesting question that is worthy of a discussion here at the Political Spectrum. To start things off, I'll try my best to make both sides of the argument.
On the one hand, there is the argument that “but for” Deep Throat, it is possible that President Nixon would not have been forced to resign and further, it is possible to argue that without the information that was provided to the Washington Post, the reporting that informed everyone that the scandal and subsequent cover-up went all the way up to the highest levels of our government could not have been completed. Now, I personally think that the situation was such that that Deep Throat’s actions, while far from perfect, were justifiable given the circumstances. Remember that at this point in American history, 1971-1974, there were no Independent Counsels, no "special prosecutors," (at least not in the modern, Ken Starr sense of the term) and, therefore, arguably no other institution other than the FBI that was capable or even competent to handle and investigation of this magnitude and political sensitivity. This is not to say that Woodward and Bernstein or others wouldn’t have uncovered the truth behind the famous question of “what the President knew and when he knew it,” but I think it is fair to say that it would have been much more difficult and likely wouldn’t have been accomplished until long after President Nixon had completed his second term. By then it arguably would have been too late, the damage would have been done and we might well be traveling down a dramatically different course of action. It was the failure of, using a cliché, the “watchers to watch themselves” that led to Congress's enactment of the Independent Counsel law and allowed subsequent investigations into the White House (e.g, Iran-Contra, Whitewater) to be conducted, for better or for worse, outside the political control of the Presidency.
Flip the coin, however, and there is a compelling argument that suggests that Deep Throat, not only broke several laws of the United States relating to secret and classified government information, but also violated the trust of those people who mattered most. Mr. Felt, being the second most powerful member of the FBI, had put himself in position to both serve and protect the President of the United States who appointed him and the White House who trusted him to fulfill his oath of office. If he had personal disagreements with the Bureau or the White House he had legal remedies that did not have to involve leaking information to Washington Post reporters late at night in dimly lit parking garages. Arguably, Felt could have resigned at any point and then disclosed the information in either grand jury testimony or possibly even publicly after consulting with an attorney. True, Mr. Felt did neither, and well, here we are, 30 plus years later questioning how a similar situation would be treated today. Would a conveyer of confidential information of Deep Throat’s magnitude be tolerated today? Do reporters who use “confidential sources” do so with the apparent caution and care that Woodward and Bernstein used (assuming you agree that they used him properly, which of course is a point that can be debated itself).
I suppose regardless of where one comes down with respect to Mr. Felt, it is clear, at least to me, that one of worst things that will happen over the next few days and weeks is that the focus will be, not on what Mr. Nixon and his close advisors and associates did, but rather on what Mr. Felt did and why he did it. Watergate was one of the worst abuses of political power in this Nation’s history. With or without Mr. Felt, Watergate was wrong, and the subsequent cover-up was also without question equally as wrong. Those facts are incontrovertible and do not change with this new revalation about the identity of Deep Throat. Watergate changed both American history and politics and, in my opinion, in no way for the better. Let’s hope we don’t lose the forest through the trees. People should and will examine Mr. Felt’s behavior, but I hope that they do so in its proper context. The context is important, it doesn’t in any way absolve or justify anyones actions, but it does inform them to a degree that might render any contemporary comparisons moot.
