More on "Deep Throat," the famed secret source for Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during the Watergate investigation…
The question I find most intriguing about this is why Deep Throat, whoever he is, would hold Bernstein and Woodward to their pledge of secrecy for what is now thirty years. For a time, the assumption was that D.T. had some sort of career in Washington and feared that exposure would affect him; that associates would shun him, distrust him, whatever. Woodward said, in a long-ago interview, something to that effect. This was one of the things that made many folks suspect Alexander Haig who, for a while, was chasing the Republican presidential nomination and could ill afford the hostility of old-line G.O.P. leaders.
(The other main bit of evidence which led to Haig — apparently erroneously — was the Bernstein-Woodward book, The Final Days. Haig was obviously a major source and he comes off as something of a hero in the proceedings. Some figured it was their payback for previous help.)
But a lot of time has passed. Haig's candidacy faltered long ago and almost no one on The Deep Throat Suspect List is still in remotely the same job. Most are completely out of politics or government service. So why doesn't Deep Throat, who supposedly is still alive, come in from the cold, write a book, reap some rewards? A friend of mine in the near-Washington press corps sends the following note…
The thinking seems to be that Throat wants the secret kept, not for any political reasons but just because he's old and wants his privacy. That might indicate Mark Felt, the FBI guy who was on everyone's list of suspects. He's ill (he had a stroke some time ago) and retired and won't even answer questions about things that are on the record from his career. He's denied he's Throat but I don't believe Woodstein ever has. Like you, I've always felt Throat was FBI. Most of those guys have a weird code of honor about leaking to the press. It's a sin, even if it's for a good cause. People outside the FBI would hail Throat as a hero but they certainly wouldn't inside the bureau.
That's as respectable a theory as I've seen…which, of course, doesn't mean it might not be dead wrong. Deep Throat could still turn out to be Joey Bishop, relaying info he got from Frank.
If it is Felt, however, there's an interesting twist to this story. Felt was convicted in 1980 of ordering illegal break-ins of the Weatherman organization. He was pardoned shortly after by then-President Reagan. Wouldn't it be interesting if it turned out that the man who helped expose Nixon's role in one break-in scandal had his own? Or that one Republican president was pardoned by the next, and then the next Republican president pardoned the man who brought down the first guy?
