Watergate Papers Go Public -WP

[Rose Siding]

AUSTIN -- Thousands of pages of notes, memos, transcripts and other materials collectively known as the Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers open to the public today at the University of Texas, minus the most fascinating detailconnected to the demise of the Nixon administration: the identity of Deep Throat.

The name of the executive branch source -- as well as dozens of other confidential sources -- will remain secret until their deaths, as promised to them by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, whose reporting for The Washington Post led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in August 1974.

"We would have thought many of these people would be dead by now, but people just live longer," Woodward, an assistant managing editor at The Post, said at a media briefing on the papers, archived at the university's Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. "It's amazing how long people live today."

But what is in the collection reveals publicly for the first time that even Nixon's closest aides and senior Republicans on Capitol Hill shared "doubts, worries and suspicions" about Nixon. They were concerned, Woodward said, both about the president's involvement in the criminal Watergate coverup and his fragile psychological state toward the end of his presidency.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61824-2005Feb3.html

[pamela]

1. I think Pat Buchanan was Deep Throat. n/t

[MADem]

2. Ya know what....???

I do too.

I KNOW he denied it. I KNOW he denied it VOCIFEROUSLY. And he continues to deny it to this day. However, he used to smoke, he used to drink a shitload of scotch, and he just FITS THE PROFILE.

I can see him in that garage. I'd love to see him and Woodward in the same room, just to see if there are any vibes going on.

[pamela]

4. Yep, it just fits.

I can totally picture Buchanan as Deep Throat for all the reasons you said. Plus it just feels right.

David Gergen is my second choice but I really think it was Buchanan.

[CottonBear]

5. Gergen? Maybe so.

I was just in 4th grade when Nixon resigned. So, please let me ask you about the scotch and ciggies. It's been at least 20 years since I read "All the Presidents Men." I don't remember any details. Wouldn't it be rich it was Pat? He is definitley not in lockstep w/ *.

[pamela]

6. Scotch and cigarettes.

There were a few clues in All the Presidents Men about Deep Throat. It was mentioned that he was a smoker and that he drank scotch. Reports say that Buchanan did both although he claims he quit smoking before 1972. A group of journalism students came to the conclusion a few years ago that it was Buchanan and had a lot of compelling evidence to support this conclusion. They later changed their minds, though, and said it was someone else. (I think they changed it to Ron Ziegler, but I'm not sure.) I think they were right the first time.

[DemonFighterLives]

12. They said on Cspan that the group is going to the exibit

To dig.

[MADem]

7. Hell, he wasn't in lockstep with the GOP after that mess!

He ran on the Reform ticket, I think, for President!

[Ouabache]

8. I'd put a little of my money on Ben Stein

another speechwriter like Buchanan.

[catzies]

3. "It's amazing how long people live today."

Because evil never dies.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Llerva mala nunca muere.

[Melynn]

9. Al Haig and John Dean

are two other candidates for Deep Throat.

[tavalon]

10. We're Woodward and Bernstein there?

I'd really love to talk to Bernstein and I'd like to kick Woodward's worthless ass.

[MADem]

13. TWO MORE THEORIES--GHW Bush or Stein????

Two Poynter entries, with differing theories.
http://poynter.org/forum/?id=letters

2/4/2005 1:22:23 PM

From JIM JAZWIECKI: I'm sticking to former Nixon speechwriter and comedian Ben Stein as Deep Throat -- he was a childhood friend of Bernstein's, and cried publicly during Nixon's resignation. When asked directly, he's always demurred, but never directly, unequivocally denied that he was Deep Throat.

2/4/2005 11:14:55 AM

From ADRIAN HAVILL: In my 1993 biography of Woodward and Bernstein, "Deep Truth," I argued that Deep Throat had to be a composite portrayal. No more. Yesterday's unveiling of Woodstein's notes at the University of Texas is an appropriate time to let Poynter's readers know -- based on recent events and my own research at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland -- who I believe DT is and why. He's not one of the nearly 100 suspects who've already been named -- either by the University of Illinois investigative team or dozens of other Watergate scholars and experts....

Historians will immediately point out that Bush, the elder, wasn't in Washington between 1971 and 1973 but lived at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York where he was ambassador to the United Nations. Okay. But my examination of White House records at the National Archives show Bush attending many Washington state dinners and weekly cabinet meetings during that period. More importantly, he was in Washington nearly every weekend where he owned a house and where his son, Neil, attended St. Alban's prep school during the week. Seven of the eight meetings between Deep Throat and Woodward that are chronicled in "All The President's Men" take place on a weekend.

Did Bush have motivation? You bet. It was Richard Nixon who urged Bush to leave a safe seat in Congress, hinting there would be a position as assistant Secretary of the Treasury waiting for him if he failed to win a Senate seat held by Ralph Yarborough. When Bush lost, Nixon reneged and asked him to take the U.N. slot instead but teased him by hinting he would be the replacement for Spiro Agnew in 1972. Instead, he was given the thankless task of heading the Republican National Committee in 1973. The elder Bush got his revenge in the end, by standing up at a cabinet meeting in August of 1974 and becoming the first person in Nixon's inner circle to ask the President to resign.

How did they meet? Probably at the Pentagon where Woodward was stationed in the late 1960s. The former President made a 16-day visit to Vietnam in 1967 and briefed military brass upon his return. Certainly the two, both Yalies and both Navy men, could find common ground.

Woodward claims never to have even interviewed the former President. At the same time, in his 1998 book, Shadow, he boasted that Bush had aides dropped off classified documents to his home which became the basis of a Washington Post front page story. .....

Thus Texas may be the perfect repository for Woodstein's notes.

[merh]

14. Smoke screen!!!

Get lost in Watergate and forget about Plamegate, Election Fraud, GannonGate, et cetera!

Distraction - look under this shell, it's over here! :hi:

[Langis]

15. Can someone please explain to me what Deep Throat is?

I guess I am too young to know.

[merh]

16. The name of the inside source that leaked the information to

Woodward and Bernstein that blew open Watergate and lead to the resignation of Richard M. Nixon.

The source was known as "Deep Throat".

My personal theory is that poppy bush was deep throat. Woodward kisses his ass and protects his son way to much these days. Woodward owes the BFEE and he is paying them back constantly by protecting the weed and not "investigating" their crimes the way he did Nixon's.

Dianne Sawyer is way to protective of that family too!