Lessons of Deep Throat

Elise at After School Snack has the goods on Bush’s reaction to Deep Throat’s unmasking:

Scene: Press Conference, Oval Office
Topic: Deep Throat. Mood: Shifty.

"Q: Is he a hero?

PRESIDENT BUSH: He was -- it's hard for me to judge. I'm learning more about the situation. All I can tell you is, is that it's -- it was a revelation that caught me by surprise, and I thought it very interesting. I'm looking forward to reading about it, reading about his relationship with the news media."

Yeah, I'll fucking bet you are, you absolute toad of a man. The existence of people like Mark Felt must give you nightmares. Let's hope Bob Herbert is right, and this little excursion into history reminds people that corruption can be taken down by things that seem unimportant at first glance.

Heh heh heh. (Is it any wonder Elise and I get along so well?)

Meanwhile, over at Congressman Conyers’ blog…

The lessons of Watergate are so telling and important today that it is eery [sic], not to mention depressing:

– Back than 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 propoganda machine and a largely compliant press, although we do have a blogosphere attempting to lead – or shame – the MSM into doing 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 Paul O'Neil step forward, they are subject to shame and ridicule by the White House.

– Back than 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.

That’s my opinion at least.

(Emphasis mine.)

I think it’s probably safe to say that’s an opinion shared by many in the blogosphere who are trying to convince the media that there was a time when they wouldn’t have needed convincing to do their jobs.

There was a time when people like us would have sat back in awe as we learned that the dogged determination of two tenacious young journalists were the undoing of a scoundrel president and his crooked administration. Now, we organize coordinated efforts to beg the media to report on a memo that suggests a greater betrayal of the American people, a more astonishing willful deceit, than anything to which Woodward or Bernstein ever became privy through secret rendezvous with cloaked informants. The allegation that our country was taken to war on constructed pretenses by undeterrable warmongers was published in a major international newspaper—laid across our media’s desks like a sandwich from Al’s diner delivered at lunchtime by an office lackey—they didn’t have to lift a finger to get it. It needs to be investigated; the truth needs to be found. Yet they ignore it. And so the American people are betrayed again.