Keith Olbermann
Deep Throat revealed?
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
The greatest mystery of 20th Century American politics may soon be solved.
We might shortly find out who "Deep Throat" was.
John Dean, the former White House Counsel to Richard Nixon, whose testimony unlocked the enigma and the insidiousness of Watergate, wrote in The Los Angeles Times that an impeccable source has informed him that "Throat" is in ill health, that Bob Woodward has notified his colleagues at The Washington Post of this fact, and that an obituary has been prepared — almost certainly identifying the man behind the pseudonym.
John Dean will join me exclusively on Countdown tonight (Monday the 7th) to discuss what he's learned — and how the roster of candidates may have been re-shaped by simple dint of the illness of one of the names on it.
For the record, Mr. Woodward is not commenting — and the Post's executive editor says that Woodward hasn't told him to make any special preparations. But an obit appears to be "in the can" — not by itself a necessarily revealing fact, because the likelihood is that the passing of the man himself would've merited such a notice with or without his status of journalistic legend.
If somehow you don't know who I'm talking about, "Deep Throat" was the pivotal source — still anonymous nearly 33 years later — in the coverage of the Watergate scandal by Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Woodward and Bernstein, and their former editor Ben Bradlee, have vowed never to reveal his identify so long as he lived.
Contained in that edifice of anonymity is perhaps the most intricate of the many "Throat" conundrums. The man doesn't want to be identified, and by implication, is not proud of his role in stabilizing the democracy — even though so many others are proud of him.
There seems to be something approaching a "Throat" Harmonic Convergence, just at the moment. Dean's health scoop is unfolding, by extraordinary coincidence, just as the reportorial records of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward are being formally unveiled in the permanent home, at the University of Texas —dedication ceremonies were Friday.
Make sure to bring the kids ("Ooooh, look, Timmy - Bernstein's lunch voucher for August 22, 1972! Take a picture!")
Dozens of individuals have been previously "outed" as "Deep Throat." In an entertaining if not particularly scholarly book, former Nixon lawyer Leonard Garment pointed the finger at Nixon attorney John Sears. Several others fingered Garment. Carl Bernstein's ex-wife said it was former FBI bigwig Mark Felt (it occurred to me in conversation the other night that there's a whole clothing theme going on here: Felt, Garment, Sears…)
A computer-aided study by a journalism class at the University of Illinois concluded it was still another Nixon attorney, Fred Fielding. And John Dean himself, in a methodical, grid-by-grid, fact-by-fact electronic book for Salon three years ago, narrowed it down to appointment secretary Dwight Chapin, deputy press secretary Jerry Warren, and speechwriters Ray Price and Pat Buchanan.
Our colleague Mr. Buchanan has denied that. Regardless, Pat's candidacy made for interesting television the other night. Carl Bernstein also wrote a great biography of the Pope, and when John Paul took ill, we interviewed Carl on Countdown. He was also interviewed on an MSNBC special hosted by —Pat Buchanan. It wasn't necessarily Deep Throat interviewing one of "his" reporters, but it made a fascinating picture nonetheless.
Even at what may be the last hour of "Throat" speculation, new candidates are emerging. In a letter to Jim Romenesko's Media News blog on the Poynter organization's website, one of the hundreds of authors who dream of unmasking history's greatest anonymous source, wrote that "Deep Throat" was in fact President Nixon's Ambassador to the United Nations — a man named George Herbert Walker Bush.
Yeah, that George Herbert Walker Bush.
The purported motive, according to author Adrian Havill, was that the future 41st President was ticked off that Nixon had induced him to resign from Congress on a hint that he might make him his Vice-Presidential candidate in 1972 — and then didn't.
This is not being taken particularly seriously by the many Throat-obsessives, and the former President's office told us Friday it would not even comment on the posting.
But it underscores how this one figure in the history of American politics — and journalism — continues to enthrall us.
And how much I have to ask John Dean about tonight.
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The writer hosts MSNBC's “Countdown with Keith
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