Deep Throat?

[Relbeek Einre]

Yeah, right. That would have allowed him to live until 2005.

[Kulaf]

How can you classify DT as a "whistleblower"? He didn't do anything.....he didn't provide anything to any legal body. His role was as a confirmation source for a newspaper. Why anyone would want to elevate him to some noble realm is beyond me.

[Relbeek Einre]

It's amazing. Simply amazing. The spin machine came out to discredit DT and it has stuck so fast.

What he did required courage, honor, and a loyalty to this country that the Liddys, Novaks, O'Reillys and Bushes of this world will never have.

There are plenty in this country, alive and dead, who have shown farmore of both, but to dismiss what he did is absolutely ridiculous.

[Kulaf]

Don't need to listen to a spin machine.....I was alive when it was happening. I have respect for whistle blowers because they put their professions on the line to bring evidence of corruption out in public and let the chips fall where they may. DT does not belong on that pedestal.

Did it take some courage.......sure. But I think the entire affair would have been broght to a swift conclusion if he had just stepped forward and testified before Congress. And quite frankly I still think he was pissed over not getting the job he thought he deserved and that helped make his decesion a lot easier. I'm sure he also felt that the Nixon administration was interferring too heabvily into the affairs of the FBI.

Was it good that the information came out? Of course it was. Nixon was out of control and was trying to use the FBI as some kind of secret police. But do I think leaks are the way to do it? No.

[Relbeek Einre]

The man probably feared for his life, Kulaf, and justly so.

Was it motivated by spite at not getting J. Edgar's job? Can't say. But neither can you.

[Kulaf]

Yeah because all those FBI assainations that we read about on a daily basis would give him pause.

Where his motives altruistic? Can't say.....but neither can you.

[Harlowe]

That's beginning to sound a bit "I know you are but what am I".

Since no one can say what the motives are, we should look at whether or not the outcome was positive and if it had negative consequences being leaked as opposed to given before a grand jury.

It's hysteria to label him a "traitor", Bangzoom already addressed that succinctly enough.

[Kulaf]

The only two people in this thread to use the word "traitor" are you and Bang.

[Relbeek Einre]

True, but the right-wing spin machine has slathered that around a bit.

[Kulaf]

Wouldn't know....I don't bother listening to em.

[ZanypherCocoapuffs]

What he did required courage, honor, and a loyalty to this country that the Liddys, Novaks, O'Reillys and Bushes of this world will never have.

I got the Liddy, Novak, and O'Reilly part... but you just had to throw in a random Bush bash eh?

Go ahead and question his motives all you want. But in the end do you beleive his actions were good or bad?

Goes back to my first question: do the ends justify the means? The results were obviously favorable to the good of the nation, in more ways then one. Too long had people been living in a shadow of belief that the government of the US was always right. Vietnam and Watergate opened a lot of eyes that maybe things in Washington really should be questioned. However, our confidence in the Presidency has never fully recovered. Now we distinctly search for scandal wherever we can find it and no matter how miniscule it is. From Iran Contra to Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky to the Iraq War. While I favor a need to keep the government in check, the fact that people actively search for everything bad for the sake of making news more then actually keeping the government in check is my problem. I think all of these things are a result of Deep Throat's actions.

Nowadays, Washington "leaks" are almost trendy.

[quote"Kulaf"]How can you classify DT as a "whistleblower"? He didn't do anything.....he didn't provide anything to any legal body. His role was as a confirmation source for a newspaper. Why anyone would want to elevate him to some noble realm is beyond me.[/quote]

Is everybody's problem that he didn't go through legal channels? Ideally, his actions probably helped apply more pressure to Nixon's removal from being a source to Woodward and Bernstein then going before the Grand Jury. While I am a believer in the law and that all legal courses should be taken first, in Nixon's America, the law may not have necessarily been the best way to go. You're talking about an Administration that circumvented the legal system for it's own ambitions. I realize that there were a lot of paranoid people back in the 60s and 70s, but Nixon's skirting of the law wasn't any better then Deep Throat's avoidance of the legal track.

We have to keep in mind that the times justified the direction he took. There were many many people who didn't talk because they were scared out of their wits. Besides, assume Deep Throat's testimony would have gone before a Grand Jury, would it have ended in the same result? Nobody can really say.

[Trollbait]

What he did required courage, honor, and a loyalty to this country that the Liddys, Novaks, O'Reillys and Bushes of this world will never have.

You can do the wrong thing and still have loyalty to your country if you believe that what you are doing is for the greater benefit of the United States. Loyalty is very dangerous when viewed under that light.

[Kulaf]

I'm reminded of "Clear and Present Danger". The old "Patomac two-step".......and Jack Ryan marching before congress to tesify against the President.

[Trollbait]

I'm reminded of "Clear and Present Danger". The old "Patomac two-step".......and Jack Ryan marching before congress to tesify against the President

I am reminded of an Oliver North quote that I will paraphrase here....


"This time it was to stop the spread of communism, but one day gentlemen, it will be food, or water and you are not going to want to know what I have to do to get it for you."


That kind of loyalty is still loyalty......but extremely dangerous.

[ZanypherCocoapuffs]

I'm reminded of "Clear and Present Danger". The old "Patomac two-step".......and Jack Ryan marching before congress to tesify against the President.

Book plots != reality.

(Even though I'm a huge Tom Clancy fan too, and think Jack Ryan is one of the best characters ever made in literature.)

[Partha]

You can do the wrong thing and still have loyalty to your country if you believe that what you are doing is for the greater benefit of the United States.

Unless, of course, you're arguing with Jecks about prisoners, in which case you're a traitorous bastard.

[Relbeek Einre]

A very salient point, Jecks.