Adam Felber wrote recently about an editorial written by Pat Buchanan. His description of Mr. Buchanan was priceless.
Confession: I kind of like Pat Buchanan. He’s a little like that loopy and feared uncle that you only see on very special occasions, the guy who seems genial and reasonable and maybe even insightful at times and you start to wonder what all the fuss was about and why everyone avoids him and you start to make secret plans to sort of draw him back into the family fold because clearly everyone was overstating past problems and besides he seems to have changed and --
-- and then somebody accidentally mentions one of his "hot button" topics and your new favorite uncle suddenly turns into a frothing, raving madman, upends the dining room table, rips off his clothes and goes running naked out the door and down the suburban streets while singing "Battle Hymn of the Republic" at the top of his lungs."
Adam Felber, Winning the Vietnam War
I've been shocked at the number people that have rushed either to defend Mr. Nixon and his administration or to attack Mark Felt, aka "Deep Throat".
I was aghast that someone of Peggy Noonan would abandon a core conservative value like "personal responsibility" and blame Pol Pot's murderous regime on Mark Felt. If any one is to blame for Cambodia, it is Pol Pot and his band of murderers. If anyone is to blame for the weakened presidency it is Nixon and his aides who conspired to keep their misdeeds in the dark. It just goes to show you that it's not really a great cultural war about about values; it's a game of us versus them. It's like the republicans with short memories who think it's ok to filibuster, but only when you are the minority party.
Chuck clearly is unhappy about the method and motives of Mr. Felt. It would really help if Mr. Colson and Mr. Nixon's henchmen weren't trying to do similar things like tampering with evidence, investigation and grand juries. I would also like to point out that going to prison seemed to have a done a world of good for Mr. Colson. I assume if he hadn't gone to jail he would be a "hatchet man" for Mr. G.W. Bush right now. I think Mark Felt may not have had the purest motives but acted in the most effective ways available to him at the time. If Mr. Colson would have gone public with what he knew from his own conscience then perhaps I might agree more with Mr. Colson. Since Mr. Colson is engaged in christian ministerial work it seems like I would be remiss if I didn't mention that whole "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone ..." Mr. Colson please don't rush to throw your stones at Mr. Felt.
In personal conversation with a relative the question has posed, had Mr. Felt broken his F.B.I. oath. I looked up the oath to see what I think.
"I, [insert name here], do solemnly swear to support, uphold and
defend the Constitution of the United States of America against
all enemies, foreign and domestic, to obey the lawful orders and
directives of those appointed before and above me, and that I
enter into this office without any mental reservation whatsoever,
so help me GOD."
I don't think that Mr. Felt violated this in his role as "Deep Throat". He may have in other roles for which he was later prosecuted, but we'll ignore that for the moment.
If nothing else, can I just point out that defending Nixon just sounds idiotic. Buchanan, Colson, and Noonan all agree Nixon and others broke the law, so defending him is just dumb. Is this setting us up for the next presidential election being about Watergate in the same way that Bush versus Kerry was about Vietnam?
The Moderate Voice does a better job summarizing this than I ever will.
I really would like to have a political party that better represented me. There appears to be none at the moment.
I asked some coworkers the day after the "news" broke -- "am I missing something? Did Felt do something that gravely wrong?"
I can appreciate the "means don't justify the ends" argument. But many sure do make it seem like loyalty was more important than the truth.