Deep Throat

One of the last, great secrets from the 1970s Watergate scandal was revealed today: The Identity of Deep Throat. As the gentle reader will likely know, Deep Throat, was the journalistic source who--under "deep background"--provided information and guidance to the Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, ultimately bringing an end to the Nixon presidency.

Deep Throat was apparently W. Mark Felt--at the time of the scandal, the second-ranking official in the FBI.

As I write this, I'm listening to convicted felons Chuck Coulson and G. Gordon Liddy tell CNN interviewers that, by leaking information to the Washington Post, Mr. Felt acted dishonorably. Day is night, white is black, pigs fly, and nothing is what it seems. So rotten to the core was the entire Nixon Administration, that its stench still hangs over our nation's capital. These despicable people, led by a despotic ruler with only contempt for the rule of law, broke any number of laws to advance the political agenda of the President. They were convicted for their crimes, and were imprisoned. Truly the only unjust aspect of their imprisonment is that it ended.

And here sit these unrepentant traitors daring to impugn one of the few high-ranking American of the time with the guts and determination to defy a lawless President and his criminal administration. It's as unfathomable as it is unsurprising; having first lied about their activities, these traitors now seek to bend the truth regarding the criminality of their actions.

Make no mistake, W. Mark Felt is the most unommon of American hero. Whatever his motive, he saw something so wrong as to imperil American democracy, and he stepped forward, at great danger to himself, to make sure that our great free press shone its light brightly upon the wrongdoers.

Well done, Agent Felt. Well done, indeed. Even thirty years later, a grateful nation remains in your debt.