Who Can Really Say?

For me, the most interesting thing about Mark Felt's revelation that he was Deep Throat, Woodward and Bernstein's secret anonymous source for much of their Watergate reporting, is the reaction to it from some quarters.

Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible? He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POW's, ended the war in the Mideast, opened relations with China, started the first nuclear weapons reduction treaty, saved Eretz Israel's life, started the Environmental Protection Administration. Does anyone remember what he did that was bad?

Oh, now I remember. He lied. He was a politician who lied. How remarkable. He lied to protect his subordinates who were covering up a ridiculous burglary that no one to this date has any clue about its purpose. He lied so he could stay in office and keep his agenda of peace going. That was his crime. He was a peacemaker and he wanted to make a world where there was a generation of peace. And he succeeded.

That is his legacy. He was a peacemaker. He was a lying, conniving, covering up peacemaker. He was not a lying, conniving drug addict like JFK, a lying, conniving war starter like LBJ, a lying, conniving seducer like Clinton -- a lying, conniving peacemaker. That is Nixon's kharma.

When his enemies brought him down, and they had been laying for him since he proved that Alger Hiss was a traitor, since Alger Hiss was their fair-haired boy, this is what they bought for themselves in the Kharma Supermarket that is life:

1.) The defeat of the South Vietnamese government with decades of death and hardship for the people of Vietnam.

2.) The assumption of power in Cambodia by the bloodiest government of all time, the Khmer Rouge, who killed a third of their own people, often by making children beat their own parents to death. No one doubts RN would never have let this happen.

Yes, yes. China, the EPA, and all that. Great stuff. It fits in so well with the bribes and break-ins, the slush money and the obstructions of justice. Perhaps Mr. Stein ought to consider that if the ultimate loss of South Vietnam to the Communist North and the Khmer Rouge slaughter of millions in Cambodia is the result of a truncated Nixon Presidency, then the fault lies with the fellow that authorized and/or condoned the bribes and break-ins, the slush monies and the obstructions of justice, all of which led to his (Nixon's) resignation. Based upon this I'm guessing Stein thinks Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame?

I really don't care much at this point whether Mark Felt may have had other avenues to pursue beyond secretly leaking to the press. Let's keep the eye on the ball here folks.

For more, Tim Noah has a good read today at Slate on the 30+ years of specultion over Deep Throat's identity, and the bureaucratic motivations that led Felt to leak.

[Linked to the Beltway Traffic Jam.]

UPDATE: A story for sale?