Deeper Throat: more musings on Mark Felt

  As most discriminating readers can attest, I’m something of a conspiracy theory buff.

I certainly don’t believe every conspiracy theory I come across; far from it. But I do find any effort to connect the dots of history at a subtextual, under-the-radar level — away from the prim whitewashing and outright propaganda typical of any mainstream media outlet — to be fascinating and worthwhile in and of itself, if for no other reason then it stimulates the mind in unanticipated new directions.

Any discussion of the unveiling of Deep Throat would be remiss without a mention of one of the all-time great round-up conspiracy theory tomes, Ron Rosenbaum’s stylish and wry The Secret Parts of Fortune.

Among chapters on Lee Harvey Oswald, the Skull & Bones society, George H.W. Bush investigator Danny Casolaro and bogus cancer cures in Mexico, Rosenbaum pens a chapter on the mystery of Deep Throat — specifically, Richard Nixon’s own musings on the subject.

It’s fascinating to read Rosenbaum’s take — written circa 2000 — now that we know who Deep Throat really is. A snippet:

“One possible explanation for the Silence of Throat… is that if Throat were, like [Henry] Peterson or [Seymour] Glanzer, part of the Justice Department prosecutorial team, the disclosure of his identity might give all the Watergate felons cause to petition for a reversal of the verdicts on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct. Who knows, they might have to restage all the big Watergate trials. As John Dean said, ‘What an exciting prospect.’”

Perhaps Rosenbaum puts his finger on why we’re now seeing such a torrent of abuse heaped on the senile, 91-year-old Mark Felt by such convicted felons and general worms as Chuck Colson, G. Gordon Liddy and (to a lesser extent of wormhood) Pat Buchanan.

These people criticizing Felt’s motives are among the most venal and corrupt political operators in modern American history. Their manufactured outrage is not just a symptom of rank hypocrisy; it’s a symptom of how sadly debased our public discourse is that such bottom-feeders would be in such abundance in the media the last few days, slandering Felt and his family without so much as a peep from the talking heads about how such morally and legally compromised men could feel so free to point a finger at others.

We may look back and see that the Watergate investigation was the last, best moment of American-style watchdog journalism. Indeed, I think the nostalgic looking back has already commenced.

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