En Memorium

So I been feeling a little down lately about a lot of things lately, not the least of which is the state of the world. I'm sure we've all become familiar with political corruption in our lifetimes. While political corruption is as old as politics itself, the man who destroyed America's faith in its highest office was Richard Milhous Nixon. Nixon is most famous for the Watergate scandal, a story that was broken by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward of the Washington Post. Woodward's main source was a man refered to only as Deep Throat [named after the porno... yes, really, someone at the Post had a dirty sense of humor]. Woodward vowed to keep Deep Throat's identity secret until he died or consented to have it revealed.

Mark Felt started the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1942. He rose through the ranks and by the early 1970s he was at the top level. Well, not quite the top level. He was passed over for the Director job after J. Edgar Hoover's death. In 2005, he was revealed to the world as Deep Throat.

Was he standing up for his belief that was Nixon was doing was wrong? Was he just pissed off that he didn't get the big job? We'll probably never know. His family says he's a hero and a patriot. Whatever his motivations, I agree. His identity was kept secret for good reason. He wasn't a perfect man. He was convicted of wiretapping members of the Weather Underground, but received a pardon from Reagan. A pardon he probably wouldn't have got if he was known as Deep Throat. The Watergate scandal sent Nixon Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, White House Counsel Charles Colson, G. Gordon Liddy, Egil Krogh, and John Erlichman to prison. If Ford hadn't stepped in with a pardon, there's a decent chance Nixon might have gone too. Imagine if someone were to blow the whistle on members of the Bush administration. Cheney all but confessed to war crimes in a recent interview.

Whyever he stood up against Nixon [if you call anonymously leaking information in shadowy parking garages standing up], the point is I'm glad he did. Democracy only thrives if people actively question their leadership [and as soon as he takes office I have some questions for Barack Obama]. The Watergate scandal was a seminal moment in American history. It's not like no one had ever questioned the presidency before. Andrew Johnson had been impeached, People called FDR a communist, and there certainly a lot of protests against Lyndon Johnson. But Watergate really hit the message home and has shaped the course of American politics. That's what happens when someone stands up.

R.I.P.
William Mark Felt, Sr.
17 August 1913-18 December 2008