Today's Deep Throat

Since Mark Felt came out and announced his identity as Deep Throat, ending the longest held secret in contemporary American Politics, Representative John Conyers (D-MI) calls for the contemporary Washington insiders to step forward for the sake of politcal justice:

Today we learned “Deep Throat's" true identity -- W. Mark Felt, the then Deputy Director of the FBI. As one who was a first-hand witness to Watergate, I can only state humbly that this man helped bring our country back from the constitutional brink of an out-of-control White House, and the entire nation owes him a debt of gratitude.

The lessons of Watergate are so telling and important today (see my blog for more) that it is eerie, not to mention depressing:

– Back then we had an aggressive press corps –- at least parts of it -– willing to take a story and run with it, notwithstanding blowback from the White House. Today we have a paid government propaganda machine and a largely compliant press, although we do have a blogosphere attempting to lead –- or shame –- the MSM into dong the right thing.

– Back than we had men of courage, such as Mark Felt, John Dean, Leon Jaworski and Archibald Cox, who were willing to challenge authority and abuses of power. Today, when individuals such as Richard Clarke or former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill step forward, they are subject to shame and ridicule by the White House.

– Back then we had a Justice Department that was willing to take an investigation wherever it would lead. Even before the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre,” the FBI and DOJ were aggressively pursuing leads. Today we have a Justice Department that sees or hears no evil when it comes to the Administration, and has operated as a willing accomplice to torture and rendition.

– Back than we had a Congress that was willing to hold real hearings and conduct real oversight of official misconduct -- see Sam Ervin and the recently deceased Peter Rodino. Today, we have one-party rule, and all too many in Congress simply take their marching orders from the White House, rather than stand up for what’s right.

I am thrilled that Mark Felt came forward today to teach this generation a thing or two about responsibility and accountability.

Rep. Conyers has recently been involved with such notable political efforts as oen of the 88 Congressmen who sought clarification from The Administration after the British "Secret Iraq Invasion" Memo was released; and seeking an inquiry into potential Voter fraud in Ohio.

Harry Shearer, Spinal Tap bassist, Simpson's voice, and political satirist, agrees with Conyers, but points out that modern Deep Throats have been trying:

Good idea. One problem: they already did, and nobody, or almost nobody listened.
Ever heard of Greg Thielmann? He should be at least as famous as W. Mark Felt by now. A few stories about him surfaced during the time it mattered, the runup to the war, when he, and his British and Australian colleagues (Dr. Brian Jones and Andrew Willkie) tried to alert us all to the falsity of the intel on which the invasion was based. Their experiences raise the question: what if a whistleblower risks his all to warn his countrymen, and nobody listens? Deep Throat would have been useless without a Deep Ear.

When David Kay, the President's hand-picked man to run the Iraq Survey Group, came back from his search for WMD, he said, "we were all wrong".
He was wrong.

There are countless others, of course. What Shearer speaks to, though, is this secret that nobody is willing to express. Felt was villified [and still is, according to the Chinese Daily] as a betrayer in certain circles.

But what Shearer points to and does not express is this: The Nixon Administration's downfall taught the institutionalized Republicans a lot about maintainence in crisis situations. None of the major crises that have arisen stemming from the Invasion have stuck; at least partially because Watergate taught them the lessons of resistence to them.

Nobody listened, Mr. Shearer, because their crises were defused before the witnesses could even be heard with bigger, more seemingly urgent crises.