My first post is on "Deep Throat"...go figure

I always think that a first post that actually SOUNDS like a first post usually sucks. I mean, if folks want to learn about me, they can read my bio! (when I get around to writing it)

So, let's just dive in deep end, shall we?

For those of you who were born after 1970, finding the verified identity of Watergate informant Deep Throat on the front page in 2005 may seem passe. However, many of us who grew up with the 30-year mystery are still fascinated by the events artfully woven together by journalists Woodward and Bernstein and deftly portrayed on-screen by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.

I know that the news made me dig back a bit to remember who the other potential "culprits" were, which led me to a 2002 article in the Washington Post.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/watergate/deepthroat.html

In it they discuss the various theories, including the one involving the FBI:

In his article, Mann said three FBI officials confronted Gray and protested what they saw as the White House's interference with the bureau's Watergate probe. They were W. Mark Felt, FBI deputy associate director (and known by reporters as someone willing to take their calls); Charles W. Bates, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's general investigative division; and Robert Kunkel, the special agent in charge of the Washington, D.C., field office. Mann identified all three as Deep Throat suspects.

The differences between then and now are fascinating.

Thirty-years ago, we the public didn't know the identity of the informant yet his information brought down an entire Administration.

Thirty-years-later, our "informants" are previously high-ranking Administration figures like former Counterterrorism Chief Richard Clarke, former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Christie Whitman and former high-ranking CIA agent Mike Scheuer. Today, our "informants" don't meet journalists in parks and parking garages, they write their own books, testify in front of Congress and are interviewed all over the Beltway. Today, we have confirmation of many of their accusations, sometimes from the mouths and pens of the accused. Yet, the misinformation and misdirection campaigns of Karl Rove and the rest of the Bush Administration has seemed to (so far) keep them secure in their jobs and turned the mainstream media into White House lap dogs.

Yup, it's a whole different world, isn't it?