Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Recommended Reading

I was outta town so I didn't get to post a link to Frank Rich's weekend column. It's about how no one seems to know what to do with Ground Zero in New York except to exploit it for political advantage.

• Posted at 9:59 PM · LINK

No More Mystery

As a longtime wallower in Watergate, I've waited a long time to read something like this...

The Washington Post today confirmed that W. Mark Felt, a former number-two official at the FBI, was "Deep Throat," the secretive source who provided information that helped unravel the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s and contributed to the resignation of president Richard M. Nixon.

When I get some time (ha!), I'm going to haul out the several dozen books I have in which wise, educated men explained their expert deductions that D.T. couldn't have been Felt or anyone in the F.B.I., or even that there was no such informant. It's amazing how you can go so far down the wrong trail.

And I guess we'll hear people fuming that an FBI agent leaked to reporters, or even doubting the revelation. The funny thing is that if my reading of the various Watergate tomes is correct, Deep Throat wasn't that big a factor in the bringdown of Richard Nixon. He got a lot of things wrong and often served as a "second source," back when reporters used to care about such things. He did have a lot to do with keeping Woodward and Bernstein on the case, and with bolstering the Post's confidence in sticking with the story...but I think Nixon would have fallen even without those secret meetings in parking garages.

I assume this all means that Bernstein and Woodward are free to talk at length about all the parts of the story that they previously had to stonewall. I'll be interested in reading and hearing what they have to say.

• Posted at 2:50 PM · LINK

Throat Article

Here's a link to the Vanity Fair article revealing Mark Felt as Deep Throat. It's an Adobe PDF file and I suspect it will not be online for long.

• Posted at 10:22 AM · LINK

Throat Warbler

So far, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein have no comment, but it's being reported that Mark Felt has confessed to being their legendary source, Deep Throat. As I mentioned here, here, here and many other places, I always felt he was the guy. Assuming this revelation doesn't get shot down, it will be interesting to look back on all the books and essays by learned men who studied the evidence and came to the firm conclusion either that it was someone else, or that Deep Throat was a composite or figment. A lot of people guessed Felt but a lot more made stirring deductions that it couldn't be him.

• Posted at 9:30 AM · LINK

John Albano

While in Scottsdale, I heard that comic book writer John Albano had recently passed away. I'm afraid I have no details, nor do I have enough info about John to write any sort of decent obit here. I know that he worked extensively for DC in the seventies, most notably on the western strip, Jonah Hex, which he created. And I know he later went on to do a lot of work for Archie Comics...but that's about it. If anyone out there can furnish some info, please get in touch with me.

• Posted at 9:04 AM · LINK