Dark Garages

So W. Mark Felt has revealed himself as the most important unnamed source in the history of journalism, "Deep Throat." When I saw this yesterday, I will admit that I was shocked, I had figured the source would take it to their grave, and that Woodward, Bernstein and Ben Bradlee would have to wait for the source to die to reveal the sources name. Now, Vanity Fair has done he job, and Felt can die at with the secret off his chest. Many on the Right, especially the old Nixon hands still alive to tell the story and willing to attack Felt (Chuck Colson, Pat Buchanan and the psychotic G. Gordon Liddy), have come out and said that this was some sort of treasonous act. It isn't. Felt, whether his motivation was spite, jealousy or anything else, he did the right thing. The situation above him was totally compromised, his bosses boss, John Mitchell, is the one who authorized the break-in. The only choice, he felt, I'm sure, was to go to the press, because the corruption around him was near total. I've seen a lot of Conservatives on posting boards calling this treason, because Felt didn't follow the chain of command. The chain of command was corrupt. I saw Pat Buchanan on TV earlier today saying that the Post had sat on compromising information on JFK and MLK and didn't print it, showing that the paper was out to destroy Nixon because he was a conservative and they just didn't like him. The problem with that is simple. Those cases were cases of personal indiscretions, they were personal acts, the same they were for Eisenhower, who the press knew to have mistresses. The Nixon White House committed terrible abuses of power, that's what was so awful. They took the power of the office and used it to support and participate in criminal acts. Now journalism has changed, that information would not be so easily dismissed today, but it should be mentioned that when Buchanan mentioned King's indiscretions, he neglected to say if the wiretaps and photos were legal or part of a real FBI investigation.

By the way- this one's for you John: The Boston Herald's headline today was the following "Deep Throat Coughs it Up" Seriously. Gross. Who thinks up this crap?

I have to say something abut how I spent my Memorial Day weekend. Like another couple million people, I watched a significant portion of the Indianapolis 500 Sunday. I will admit to rooting openly for Danica Patrick to win, if only for two reasons. First, she's my age, and for someone my age to be winning something like the Indy 500 is amazing. Second, I wanted her to stick that pint of milk up Robbie Gordon's ass. But I also remembered something else. I also watched portions, and I'm not proud to say this, of the Daytona 500 earlier this year. The difference between watching open-wheel and NASCAR is immeasurable. The racing is so much better with open-wheeling, so much more entertaining, its ridiculous. Now, while I was surprised that I was so engrossed in the race, I also should have realized that this was the only race I watched at all growing up, and that maybe that might have been clouding my judgment. And yes, Danica is also attractive, which doesn't hurt things.