Mark Felt ("Deep Throat") on CNN

[H2O Man]

Larry King is going to have an interview with Mark Felt on tonight. (9 pm est) This is to help promote the book that his family is apparently coming out with. I believe that he will be on MSNBC tomorrow night.

It may be interesting to watch. In his book last year, Bob Woodward wrote that Felt's mental status was reduced to a point where he had no memories of the his role in the Watergate episode. While I think Woodward's "The Secret Man" has some value, I will be interested in seeing what this book -- and interview -- offers.

Felt was the 2nd in charge of the FBI, who headed an operation to provide Bob Woodward with inside information on the Nixon White House. For younger DUers who have not read much on that era, Felt would meet Woodward (but not his partner, Carl Bernstein), in a garage late at night, to leak some information, and also to help direct the authors on the straight and narrow.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. That should make for an interesting interview.....?

In his book last year, Bob Woodward wrote that Felt's mental status was reduced to a point where he had no memories of the his role in the Watergate episode.

[H2O Man]

3. The show may be interesting.

I don't expect the interview to be a fact-filled adventure. I will be interested in seeing if Felt is in the condition that Woodward described; I do not tend to accept anything Bob says on face value. I assume that the show will offer more than an hour-long interview with an elderly gentleman who is not able to remember anything. Were it on Fox, maybe.

[H2O Man]

6. It's interesting.

He's an old, old man. But he has a dignity to him.

[ReadTomPaine]

7. I'm surprised at how clear headed he appears to be, frankly. n/t

[H2O Man]

8. Yes.

The length of the interview, even with editing, is impressive. He is a man of history.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

9. Doesn't that make you question Woodward even more?....

...Why would Woodward make the claim that Felt had memory issues, when it appears that he doesn't? What does Woodward fear that Felt might reveal?

[ReadTomPaine]

10. Your point is a good one.

Mind you, I haven't trusted Bob Woodward for years...so I didn't need much of a push. :)

[Media_Lies_Daily]

19. Agreed.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

2. He's senile,

and has been for years. I'm sure his rapacious daughter and that awful lawyer who wrote the book will be there, holding him up.

This is a sad travesty. Mark Felt's been out of it for years. What a shame. The daughter wants the money. She said so.

What's really tragic is that they just made public the fact that his wife committed suicide in the early eighties. He lived in the same condominium I did - Watergate at Landmark in Alexandria, VA - and everyone knew what had happened. The idea that he kept it a secret from his daughter since then is just so sad. And now she's blaming the FBI for her mother's death.

It's sad that this is going to be on national TV. The story is long over.

[Zen Democrat]

4. I read that Mark Felt blamed the FBI for his wife's suicide.

His daughter was estranged from the family at the time, living in a commune. But, everything I've read about Mark Felt says he suffers from dementia, so why the hell would Larry King put him on TV?

Hopefully, it won't be as pitiful as it now appears it may be.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

5. Because

Larry King probably needs to have at least one guest who's in worse mental shape than he is.

Don't forget - the show is really called "Larry King Dead."

I just think this is a travesty.

Fortunately, we'll be watching "House".

[Kingshakabobo]

11. He didn't seem too out-of-it to me???

Of course, I only caught the tail-end. I'll have to watch the re-broadcast.

[Zen Democrat]

12. Yes. I was impressed with Felt tonight.

His answers were measured, but very clear. Not at all like Woodward characterized him last year. Mark Felt is still a professional.

[BuyingThyme]

13. What did he say?

[ReadTomPaine]

14. Here's the first draft transcript

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/25/lkl.01.html

[OldLeftieLawyer]

16. Don't discount editing

Coherence comes and goes. Felt's been very sick for a long, long time. How shot up with corticosteroids and other drugs do you think he had to be to do that interview?

Then his daughter says he's getting over pneumonia.

Just remember - editing can do miracles.

[ReadTomPaine]

17. That's a real possibility, Leftie.

I've been considering the drug angle as well. As far as edits, that's par for the course.

I'd love to hear your take on this after you see the whole thing. Older, but recent photos suggest that he was in worse shape than we saw him in tonight.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

15. I caught parts of it

Done at his daughter's house, and, I would guess from what I saw, heavily edited.

I'm gonna try to watch the midnight re-run, too.

[Zen Democrat]

18. Regardless, he was still much sharper than I expected.

And much sharper than Woodward and Bradley seemed to acknowledge. Of course, they knew the man when ... and 33 years have passed by ... but for a 92 year old man I found him interesting and surprisingly true to what I had already known about him.

He admired J. Edgar Hoover. He loved the FBI. He had no idea that Nixon would be forced to resign over Watergate.

He was careful and thoughtful, using as few words as necessary, as would a proud G-Man.

Larry King at one point questioned his lucidity because he mentioned Deep Throat in the third person ... but he was obviously speaking of Deep Throat as a character, fully aware that he had played that character.

Had an interesting comment that he knew Reagan would pardon him ... and that if Reagan had not done it, he (Felt) would have forced him to do it. How delightfully cryptic.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised with Mark Felt's condition.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

20. Just keep in mind

that you watched a carefully orchestrated and edited version of what probably really took place.

I knew Mark Felt back in the days. He was a prick then, and I doubt he's changed much, except to descend into dementia. He was arrogant and gave less than a shit about personally guaranteed Constitutional rights. He was the guy convicted of ordering agents to break into homes of people he (Felt) regarded as less-than-patriotic Americans, according to his very own, power-mad definitions.

He was pardoned by Reagan. Don't forget that, either.

He ratted out his people, and now claims that he never meant for it to happen that way. Now, he claims that he was never pissed about being passed over for Director. He's a damn liar. That's the only reason he became Deep Throat.

Funny how pricks stay pricks, even as they fade away. I'll be glad when he's no longer in the spotlight. He's an ugly reminder of what was a shameful and painful period in our history.

He deserves nothing but obscurity, and the only reason he's out now is because his daughter forced Woodstein to confirm Felt, via Vanity Fair, so that she could "use the money for the kids' tuition."

He was disloyal in every way, but he helped bring down Nixon. That's about the only good thing the man ever did.

[Zen Democrat]

21. Leftie, I picked up on that as soon as he praised J. Edgar Hoover.

If he thought Hoover was a great and fine man, he had to be prick! I believed him tonight when he said he never thought the Watergate affair would lead to Nixon resigning. What do you think his original motive was? To get rid of L. Patrick Gray and move into the job? To get rid of Mitchell? I'm still keenly interested in Watergate. The whole thing was packed up and put away without much closure, in my opinion; but I was certainly one to wallow in it at the time.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

23. Hey, I was a law student when

the Senate Watergate hearings began - we were taking our first-year finals. Can you imagine what the lounge was like at the U of Chicago law school that Spring? It's amazing any of us ever studied - or passed.

But it was the most brilliant education on the Constitution at work that any student could have received.

His motive was personal gain, and that's all. He was a supercilious, rude, arrogant, mean man, full of obvious disdain for those who didn't support his rightwingnut beliefs, and proud with a capital "P'. He had white hair back then, too, thick white hair that he wore in a HUGE pompadour, which always brought a kind of titter from the ladies at Watergate at Landmark, where we all dwelled.

He wanted to be head of the FBI, but he had alienated far too many people along the way and had lacked the skills to cultivate any kind of poitical rabbi. He was, in fact, a high-level drone, and far too caught up in his image as "G-Man" (check his photo on the cover of his book - which, if there is a god, will tank). In short, he lacked the interpersonal skills needed to be the kind of brilliant blackmailer that Hoover was - Felt just would have crushed people instead of slowly taking over their lives and souls, as JEdgar did so well, may he continue to rot in unending pain, by the way.

Watergate was my life for a long time because we moved to Washington that summer, and I finished law school there. I was at the Federal courthouse every chance I got to watch John Sirica preside over the Plumbers' trial, such as it was, and if he can see Antonin Scalia today, Maximum John, as he was known (tough sentencing history) would come back and beat the crap out of him for dishonoring our Courts, our Constitution, and our (me, too) heritage as Italian-Americans.

It was an amazing time. I was at the Old Executive Office Building with a friend who happened to be one of Nixon's economic advisors, on Kissinger's staff, on the night of the Saturday Night Massacre. We saw everyone walking in and going out, looking down from Gus's office onto the driveway. We didn't know for sure what was going on until later. It was amazing.

Gus, by the way, was Gus Weiss, and if you google his name, you'll see that he "committed suicide" a few years ago, just as he - a lifelong loyal Republican - was preparing to speak out against the invasion and occupation of Iraq. I'd known Gus for a lot of years, and no one will ever convince me that he was anything but murdered by the fucking thugs who seized our country in 2000 and who are now hell-bent on sending us all into Fuckface's personal version of Armageddon. That's what Gus thought, too. He was a genius, a lovely man, a good friend, and I loved him.

I'm wallowing, and this is over morning coffee. Sorry for going on so long. The subject still lives on inside me, and, while I'll never get over how close we came to allowing Nixon to rape the Constitution and make a mockery of what our country is about, there were brave men in the House and Senate - of both parties, but mostly Republican - who stood up and did the right thing. We had Woodward and Bernstein, before Woodward became a professional Presidential fellatrix, who did their job the way it was supposed to be done, and we had Ben Bradlee and Katharine Graham and Daniel Ellsberg, people who were willing to stand up to bullies and tyrants and put what they had and who they were on the line in order to do their jobs and tell the American people the truth. It was a heady time, a right time, a dangerous time, and an exciting time.

Now, we have - what? - who? - no one with a spine, and I am so frightened for my America, for our lives, for the continuation of this planet.

Thank you for giving me the chance to ramble along on a subject that still - obviously - matters a great deal. I hope I was able to give you just a bit of something you might find interesting.

[ReadTomPaine]

24. Same here.

Many of his comments regarding Hoover, Nixon, Reagan etc. were spot on with Leftie's view of him from years ago.

Your speculations about his motives are interesting, BTW.

[H2O Man]

22. It was a good show.

Felt reminded me of an old, long-retired boxing champion, who is so frail that everyone is surprised to see he has the ability to still punch a heavy bag. His skills are clearly faded, but they were still there. Most apparent was his FBI ability to parry questions, which becomes ingrained. It also helps to cover-up a loss of memory.

Larry noted the reference to "Deep Throat" in the third person. In fact, this is because Felt was not the only person involved. He was, as the book and movie indicate, very aware that he was a suspect. Felt wasn't the person who checked the flower pot, or who put the "clock" in Woodward's morning newspapers. It was, in fact, a small group of people who coordinated the Deep Throat operation. And that, of course, is what Woodward is concerned that Felt might say.

The guy is a historic figure. He had a lot of negative qualities as well, which include his role in the black bag jobs in his search for members of the Weather Underground. He shared a lot of Hoover's less than democratic beliefs. However, both men did oppose the Huston Plan, which was in many ways an early Patriot Act. And after Hoover's death, Felt played a leadership role in the effort to remove an out-of-control president from office. There are people who will say he did this because he wanted to be the Director of the FBI; this is, without any question, not true. It's the kind of crap one would expect to hear out of Bob Woodward.