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'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confirmed

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Tue May 31, 2005 at 02:57:03 PM EST
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Bump and Update: Woodward confirms.

Update: Cadillac Tight points to the 1981 statement of Ronald Regan who pardoned Mr. Felt. Slate reported in 1999 that Nixon suspected Mark Felt and has the tape transcripts between him and H.R. Haldeman. Today at Slate, Tim Noah says Told You So.

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Original Post

Raw Story reports on the new Vanity Fair article, available free here (pdf), in which former FBI agent W. Mark Felt, now 91, finally admits to being "Deep Throat," the confidential source used by Woodward and Bernstein to unravel Watergate.

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    • 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confirmed | 42 comments (42 topical)
    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#22)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:29 PM EST
    Nice try Jim. So how do you feel about the actual topic? Personally, I always hoped I would know this patriot's name before I kicked. What are your thoughts?

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#23)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:29 PM EST
    Great post, Sailor. Leave it to PPJ to play devil's advocate to Watergate, for God's sake. If that twisted BS is the best you can come up with.....LMFAO I highly recommend the book by Bob Woodward (don't recall the name)about his and Bernstein's investigation. It's chunky but fascinating how it all unravelled - a great summer read and a lesson in the power of the Executive Office as well as a time capsule (there were pics in my copy).

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#24)
    by Quaker in a Basement on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:29 PM EST
    "Powerline has a unusal take..."
    You don't say.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#25)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:29 PM EST
    I have a question...what were the burglars that broke into the Watergate that night looking for?

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#26)
    by Quaker in a Basement on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:29 PM EST
    It wasn't what they wanted to take, Ernesto, it was what they wanted to leave behind. The burglars bugged the Democratic party offices. In addition, I think G. Gordon Liddy has claimed they were looking for information about the Democratic party hiring prostitutes or something silly like that.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#27)
    by MikeDitto on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:29 PM EST
    The Rethugs are still not beneath breaking in and bugging their opponents. It's one of Karl Rove's most popular dirty tricks. In the most famous case, I believe he was bugging the campaign office of his guy's Republican primary opponent. Remember when the Bush administration bugged the offices of the UN? Wonder where that story went... The same place as the Downing Street memo. Liberal media my ass.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#28)
    by Domino on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:29 PM EST
    I was hoping that Hal Holbrook was playing himself.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#29)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:29 PM EST
    Thanks mfox, "All the President's Men"? Title was an homage to "All the Kings Men" with Broderick Crawford I believe. MichaelMichael* - good points, perhaps I was too subtle in pointing out that when we had a free press, they actually questioned authority instead of facillitating it. * That's the equivalent of Michael Ditto, right?;-)

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:30 PM EST
    WOW!!!!! Some of us oldies have been speculating for YEARS!!! Haven't even read it yet!

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:30 PM EST
    Woodward states only that he and B. will neither confirm nor deny. They said they are holding to their pledge to only announce the identity after DT has died. I've always wondered about Felt, but he wouldn't have been my 1'st guess.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#3)
    by Mreddieb on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:30 PM EST
    I will be 60 in two weeks and I always thought to myself, Not in my lifetime. Well, as usual, I was wrong. Now to my reaction, It can best described from a phrase in afamous song by Peggy Lee. "Is that all there is?, Is that all there is?"

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:30 PM EST
    Happy Birthday, Ed. As usual, reality is much more boring than our imagined plot theories lol. Apparently Felt was under the radar for a lot of folks.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#5)
    by Mreddieb on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:30 PM EST
    Mfox Thankyou Then again maybe this guy just want his 15 min before he kicks the bucket. Thats the ticket a schill for the real Deep Throat! Let's keep conspiracys alive. Now back to, have aliens actually taken over Dick and W's bodies

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#6)
    by MikeDitto on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:30 PM EST
    W & B are still protecting their source's identity primarily because they don't feel from an ethical standpoint that Felt is capable of giving consent--he's apparently in pretty bad shape. W & B have been willing to deny the identities of people in the past (Haig for instance), so the fact that they won't deny Felt as the identity of Deep Throat could be telling in and of itself. I imagine from a legal standpoint however that if Felt is in that bad of shape his family probably has power of attorney and could waive the confidentiality on his behalf, which I imagine is how they saw it. The reports I'm hearing indicate that Felt is in such bad shape that his death is basically imminent, and his family wanted what they see as his heroism to be revealed while he was still alive.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:30 PM EST
    Thanks, Ditto! He was a hero (hint, hint to any morally compromised but patriotic citizens in possession of higher office)

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:30 PM EST
    ED, I would tend to doubt that 15 minutes of fame sounds as good at ninety-something than it did at my modest forty-something LOL.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#9)
    by Quaker in a Basement on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:31 PM EST
    Wingers! Let the wild revisionary rumpus begin! I predict that within 48 hours, the portside blogosphere will be chockablock with Mr. Felt's crimes against civilization.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#10)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:31 PM EST
    The FBI How Ironic.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#11)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:31 PM EST
    Bob (the "Boob") Novak has already labeled Felt "one of Hoovers toadies".

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:31 PM EST
    Although apparently ill, Felt was photgraphed at his home in Santa Rosa, CA and he looks pretty good for ninty + It seems as if his daughter and grandchildren were the impetus for him to reveal his identity. The daughter is quoted as saying --why should Woodward get all the glory...

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#13)
    by pigwiggle on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:31 PM EST
    And why should we care? I understand, for all you folks that were around way back when, this has some kind of loose end appeal. But for those around my age deep throat is a movie.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:31 PM EST
    pigwiggle: Actually I believe that both the movie and watergate are in the same timeframe, around 1972.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#15)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:31 PM EST
    And why should we care?
    Because we need another one like him more than ever these days. Except the MSM probably wouldn't even be interested in doing the story...

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#16)
    by DawesFred60 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:31 PM EST
    Back in the day it was known who he was really worked for and why he did what he did, Felt was working for the right but not for the reasons you think he was working for. deep throat was an FBI Guy but he was also working for others not of this nation or its ideals and people will never tell who he worked for. his real loves or not what you think. I will say nothing more. by the way both bernstein and woodward were both played for that story and never knew why, until now.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#17)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:31 PM EST
    pigwiggle - he got his code name from the movie, so the movie came first. As to why yougsters like you should care; we had a president that used the fbi and the cia and buglars to try to hijack an election. An assault on the constitution and free elections. The term watergate (see irangate, rathergate, coingate ... etc. ) was coined then because of the location. (stupid aside that means nothing to anyone but me and mine, I stayed at the HoJo's across the street for a week during the time it was broken into;-) It matters to america at the same level as teapot dome, burr/hamilton and the pentagon papers. This was back when we had a free press that would pursue a story. It wasn't that 'he brought down a president', it was the fact that he helped restore the constitution. He was one of the heroes of american history.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#18)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:31 PM EST
    et al - Powerline has a unusal take on what was done and why.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#19)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:31 PM EST
    Sailor, Nice post. Pigwiggle, Bone up on the subject and then maybe you will understand some of the condemnation of our government you read here.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#20)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:31 PM EST
    Thanks Che. Before anyone is subject to the terrorist blog powerline, I would submit this quote from the link some misguided person posted :"led Bernstein and Woodward astray" astray, astray ... FREAKIN' ASTRAY!? It's not like nixon got a bj, he tried to overthrow the gov't ... and was successful for awhile. Of course powerline refutes the holocaust and endorses unconstitutional kidnapping of japanese descendents during WW2. Yeah right, well we just debunked whether the poster that linked to this crap was ever a lib or a dem.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#21)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:31 PM EST
    Sailor writes - "Of course powerline refutes the holocaust and endorses unconstitutional kidnapping of japanese descendents during WW2" Hmmm, didn't mean to start a fight, just thought he made some interesting points about the situation. And certainly as possible as some of the others I have read. As for you charge. Could you provide a link without blowing bandwidth? Really don't want to get off topic, but since you chose to make such a serious charge, can you prove it?

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#30)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:31 PM EST
    Just IMDB'd it, guess I'm showing my age, All The Kings Men has been remade 5 times since the version I remember;-) And yep, the W/B book and movie of the same name was All The President's Men.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#31)
    by Johnny on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:32 PM EST
    Good times...

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#32)
    by pigwiggle on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:32 PM EST
    “we had a president that used the fbi and the cia and buglars to try to hijack an election. An assault on the constitution and free elections.” I know what happened, my point was that the identity of the man seems a bit irrelevant now; that’s all. Well, that and also what has stood the pass of time was a notorious p0rn flick, not the curiosity. Just seems like a new opportunity for the left and right to bash it up a bit more. “The term watergate (see irangate, rathergate, coingate ... etc…” Sure; certainly an indictment of the creativity of news editors. Can we call this namegate, or headlinegate? “Bone up on the subject and then maybe you will understand some of the condemnation of our government you read here.” I’m not any critical than anyone else here, often more critical. I believe on this particular board I am unique in my desire to strip the federal government of all but the strictest of interpretations of the enumerated powers. You are picking that fight with the wrong guy.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#33)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:32 PM EST
    Sailor - You make a charge, then can't defend it? Typical of so much of what I see on the Net. So it must not be true. I'll ask you again on the next oopen thread. That way you won't be constrained. I never was a fan of Nixon, but his place in history was cemented by his China move, which was brilliant. As for the break-in, Nixon's stupid handling of the politics of it (he should have come clean immediately and asked for forgiveness) is matched in dumbness only by Clinton's not admitting his sexual peccadilloes and Kerry deciding to run on his Vietnam record. mfox - The linked article didn't defend Nixon, but discussed the relationships between the sources, how they were affected, how jornalism was changed, etc. i.e. The identity of Deep Throat, which is the topic of this thread. You know, you really should start reading the information, not someone's comment about a blog, before you shoot of in the wrong direction. It hurts your image.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#34)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:32 PM EST
    Pigwiggle, Yes Monkey Boy also wants to strip down the govt. To a law enforcement, invasionary force. Is that the Libertarian viewpoint? I'm not rying to pick a fight but I heartily disagree with libertarian foreign policies. My sense from your comments (I may be wrong) is that you are somewhat of the libertarian persuasion. If not, I apologize in advance.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#35)
    by desertswine on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:32 PM EST
    "All the King's Men" - 1946 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Robert Penn Warren loosely based on the life of Huey "the Kingfish" Long.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#36)
    by Patrick on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:32 PM EST
    Four years after the Watergate break-in, in a strange twist of fate, Felt himself was indicted for authorizing warrantless searches during an investigation of the radical leftist group Weather Underground. Felt's reputation was such that "the whole New York office rallied around him," Grotz said. Felt was convicted in 1980 but was pardoned a year later by President Ronald Reagan.
    From the Santa Rosa Press Democrat

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#37)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:32 PM EST
    I'd still take Nixon over Bush in a heartbeat.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#38)
    by Johnny on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:32 PM EST
    Yeah, until Nixon got that stupid drug war idea planted, he was a better prez than Bush... In many ways, he was more liberal than Clinton, especially fiscally. I would still take him over Bush.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#39)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:32 PM EST
    Patrick - Isn't warrantless search the same as a B&E? Johnny - Among Nixon's many other failings he instituted price controls, which zapped the economy by stalling manufacturing facilities modernization, thus building in costs that later ignited double digit inflatrion.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#40)
    by DawesFred60 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:34 PM EST
    Hey guys who did Felt's work for, all comes together now and why.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#41)
    by Aaron on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:34 PM EST
    Matt Drudge and his machine didn't have to look any further than their old faithful ultra right wing spin news/propaganda provider, Dell's My Way News, for a story that focuses on Mark Felt's possible misconduct on the job, and what penalties he could now face for uncovering corruption at the highest levels of our government. Sure the President of the United States was a totally corrupt piece of dog crap, who wanted to fix the election and lead us down the road to totalitarianism, but that doesn't excuse Felt's behavior. Two wrongs don't make a right, he should have just quit and kept his big mouth shut. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050601/D8AF1OO80.html I say we take the old man out and shoot him down like the traitorous dog he is, after all we could be living in Nixon land right now, instead of being stuck in Bush country. You just know poor Matt is eating himself up inside as one of the darkest days in conservative Republican political history is being relived across the nation. I hope he doesn't have a nervous breakdown or anything.

    Re: 'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confi (none / 0) (#42)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:35 PM EST
    Aaron writes - "Mark Felt's possible misconduct on the job," Uh, he was convicted. So I think you can remove the "possible" bit. And no, he should have went to his boss, the AG and the press.

    'Deep Throat' Identity: W. Mark Felt - Confirmed | 42 comments (42 topical)