At MSNBC.com yesterday, Nixon White House advisor and speechwriter, and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan offered his assessment of the career of W. Mark Felt, the self-identified “Deep Throat” who died last week. He observes:
Indeed, if what Felt did was honorable, why did he lie and deny it repeatedly when asked if he was leaking to the [Washington] Post? Why did he lie in his memoir in 1979, when, well into retirement, he emphatically denied he was Deep Throat? Was Felt so noble he could save our republic, yet refuse, to the point of lying in his memoirs, to take any credit?
Answer: Felt knew what he did was dishonorable, corrupt—and unnecessary. For honest FBI agents were steadily making progress toward proving that higher-ups at CREEP were involved in aiding those caught in the Watergate break-in.
Felt had another reason for lying about his role as snitch for the Post. Former colleagues would be disgusted, for his was not only a breach of law, but of faith and trust, a dishonoring of his oath as an FBI agent.