Some days ago I made mention of Mark Felt AKA DeepThroat.
Max Holland explores the message that has sprung up around Mark Felt, and essentially demolishes it.
Hollywood, and a good deal of Washington approves of the myth because in the end Felt was instrumental in ending the presidency of an erstwhile Republican called Richard Nixon.
Trouble is, that’s a false narrative like so many that the Democrats latch themselves onto.
Columnists, talking heads and op-ed writers are holding open auditions for a role that presumably needs to be filled if we are ever going to get to the bottom of what seems fated to be dubbed, for better or worse, Russiagate: a new Deep Throat.
I get it. In the years since Watergate, the Washington Post’s famous golden source—later revealed to be former FBI No. 2 executive W. Mark Felt—has become practically synonymous with the ideal of the noble leaker. The original Deep Throat “was instrumental in thwarting the conspiracy and bringing [President Richard] Nixon down,” Harry Litman, a former deputy assistant attorney general, approvingly wrote in the Los Angeles Times in May. “Was it wrong for Deep Throat, as FBI official Mark Felt was then known, to guide the investigation?” Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan asked in June, in the midst of a column praising leaks and anonymous sources, and inviting more. New York magazine columnist Frank Rich has gone a step further and already announced his casting choice: James Comey is today’s Deep Throat.
The unarticulated presumption, which Sullivan, Litman and Rich are not alone in making, is that Felt—the FBI’s deputy director in June 1972, and subsequently the parking-garage interlocutor who steered Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to reportorial heights—was an honorable, selfless whistleblower intent on exposing the lawlessness rampant in the Nixon White House. Or, as David Remnick spelled out in the New Yorker—echoing Deep Throat’s original hagiographers, Woodward and Bernstein—Felt “believed that the Nixon administration was corrupt, paranoid and trying to infringe on the independence of the bureau.” The president and his top aides ran, Felt believed, “a criminal operation out of the White House, and [Felt] risked everything to guide” the Post reporters. A new biopic about Felt, starring Liam Neeson, is due out on September 29 and shows every sign of continuing to portray Deep Throat as a profound patriot and dedicated FBI lifer.
But here’s a heretical thought: Mark Felt was no hero. Getting rid of Nixon was the last thing Felt ever wanted to accomplish; indeed, he was banking on Nixon’s continuation in office to achieve his one and only aim: to reach the top of the FBI pyramid and become director. Felt didn’t help the media for the good of the country, he used the media in service of his own ambition. Things just didn’t turn out anywhere close to the way he wanted.
Only recently, more than four decades after Nixon’s downfall, has it become possible to reconstruct Felt’s design and what really happened during those fateful six months following the Watergate break-in. Doing so requires burrowing through a great number of primary documents and government records against the backdrop of a vast secondary literature. Nixon’s surreptitious tape recordings rank first in importance, but only mark the starting point. One has to also research documents from the FBI’s vast Watergate investigation; the bureau’s subsequent internal leak investigation; records from the Watergate Special Prosecution Force; documents from Felt’s own FBI file; and lastly, two unintentionally rewarding books: Mark Felt’s original 1979 memoir, The FBI Pyramid, and the slightly reworked version published in 2006, A G-Man’s Life.
What you’ll end up with is the real story of Deep Throat.
But, why would the Democrats latch on to the false narrative so quickly and so easily?
It’s not hard to determine, really. Forever Believers in big government, there is an incessant need on their part to believe in the idea that the only source of corruption in government is amongst those who don’t believe that government is the end-all and be-all. And of course the subset of that would be that anything that brings down a Republican has got to be worth the price of admission. In other words they’ll support anything that advances the cause. All this explains their loinizing Peter Strzok, as well.
Holland himself raises the question that I will echo here… Is James Comey today’s Mark Felt? It would take a True Believer in big government to dismiss this idea out of hand.
I will say this plainly; Mark Felt was a power-hungry backstabbing opportunist. No wonder the Democrats hold him up today as a hero, being, (as they have demonstrated so often) power hungry backstabbing opportunists themselves.
(I discussed this situation in these spaces back in 2008 when Mark felt died. Here’s a complete listing of our comments on Felt over the years.)
As I suggested in 2005, the FBI has a long history of acting politically…
It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to see that what this is all about is ‘positioning’.
Set up a bad cop, as a hero, because he took down a sitting second term, moderate Republican president.
Why? So you can get someone to come forward and bring down… facts or no… a sitting second term moderate Republican president. So that there’s PRECIDENT for a corrupt political activist, being treated like a hero, for taking down a second term moderate Republican president. It’s called self-justificaion.
The implications of all of this for the events of today as history repeats itself, are nothing short of staggering.
When Bill Clinton was being hounded for his sexual escapades inside the Oval Office, the Democrats used to call these “bimbo eruptions”.
Now suddenly when there’s a Republican in office, such matters that occurred before he was in office are called a “Constitutional crisis”.
Never let a good crisis go to waste, I suppose.
It it does seem odd, though, after decades of being told by the Democrats that morality doesn’t matter and is an individual choice, that they now demand we accept their judgment of what is it is not moral.
It’s almost as if their goal here is something other than a moral society. Perhaps their goal is political?
Asked about the murder of Mollie Tibbets, Elizabeth “Pocahantas” Warren counsels her family that they must focus on “real problems” like illegal alien “mamas being separated from their babies.”
In unrelated news, Mollie Tibbets’ mama will never be able to see her baby again, because an illegal alien brutally murdered her.
Video:
Lying Lizzie Warren is all upset about illegal alien mothers being separated from their illegal alien babies. Yet she could car less about an American mother, father, family, state and nation separated for the rest of our lives from Mollie Tibbits. Ms. Warren stick your broom stick up your hinder side..
The former intelligence professionals who are using their security clearance for lucrative gigs are in sheer panic of President Donald Trump suggestion of revoking their security clearance. None more so than one Phil Mudd, from Daily Wire:
President Donald Trump gave some bad news to hot-headed CNN FBI analyst Phil Mudd on Monday night after watching his unhinged meltdown that went viral over the weekend.
“Just watched former Intelligence Official Phillip Mudd become totally unglued and weird while debating wonderful Paris Dennard over Brennan’s Security Clearance,” Trump tweeted. “Dennard destroyed him but Mudd is in no mental condition to have such a Clearance. Should be REVOKED?”
One of the salient facts to remember in the wake of the firing (finally!) of Peter Strzok is that the man was the chief of the Counterespionage Section of the FBI. That means the man in charge of counterespionage for the Unites States of America was conducting an extramarital affair with another important Justice Department employee via text messages that could easily have been hacked by a high school student.
Roll that around in your mind for a moment. Can you think of anything dumber in the intelligence world? You don’t have to have read any of a dozen John le Carré novels to understand how foolhardy it was, how it made Strzok subject to all sorts of skullduggery from foreign powers. No wonder it took them so long to fire him. There must have been a lot to investigate besides his ridiculously biased and jejune politics.
Now roll back five years to when it was discovered that Dianne Feinstein’s chauffeur of twenty years (!) was a spy for the People’s Republic of China. (Well, five years for Dianne. The rest of us found out only last week.)
How was it possible the then-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee was under such intimate covert surveillance by China for decades? Where was our counterespionage on that one? Not doing a lot of countering.
Incompetence, here, most certainly. But there’s more going on here too.
Why is it that we didn’t hear about this for 5 years, where the facts in the case were very firmly established, and yet we heard about Trump and his supposed Russian collusion almost instantly with an almost complete lack of established facts in that case?
The man’s firing was long overdue, and frankly, he should have been arrested.
But here’s the thing…. Clearly, one story benefited the Democrats and their handlers… Namely the ChiComs… and one did not.
Personally, I can’t help but wonder if the Chinese aren’t a couple of layers underneath all of this business with Russia. The two of them have never been tremendous allies, and given what we know about “Driving Miss Feinstein“, (stealing Roger’s phrase), I can’t help but think that the weapons of mass distraction being brought to bear on this is just the thing to cover the Chinese’s backsides in their operations.
If the Russians were involved in the most recent election, you can bet your baseball bat, your cowboy hat, and your house cat that the Chinese were, as well. The attempts of China to influence our politics through the Democrats is hardly new. There’s no question in my mind that the Chinese had the Clintons in their pocket for at least 30 years. (History)
Do any of you doubt that the Chinese had their fingers into the DNC servers as well as Hillary Clinton’s personal email server, neither one of which had security that a high school student couldn’t break into?
Nor has that effort ceased.
Among other things the Chinese are in the process of picking up The Mighty 690, according to the Washington Free Beacon:
A large Spanish-language radio station in Mexico will soon begin broadcasting in Chinese in a deal critics say will bring Beijing propaganda to Chinese Americans throughout Southern California.
A Federal Communications Commission filing on the sale of radio station XEWW AM 690 radio near Tijuana reveals the buyer has ties to Phoenix Satellite Television US, a subsidiary of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing Phoenix TV.
According to government sources, signs that Phoenix is involved in the purchase of the radio station prompted the Trump administration last week to begin an investigation into the national security implications of the sale.
Phoenix TV has been identified by U.S. intelligence agencies as a major overseas outlet used to spread propaganda and promote the policies of the communist government in Beijing. The Hong Kong television station also has close ties to China’s intelligence service and military.
The deal for XEWW, a 77,500-watt station capable of reaching all of southern California, was brokered by a New York financial company, H & H Capital Partners
My friends, that 77500 what signal is half again as much power as any AM station in the United States is running, but that’s only half the story of the power involved. The antenna system is quite directional.. and the effective radiated power is well over a hundred thousand Watts, resulting in this coverage: (via Radio Locator)
Now, why do you suppose the Chinese Communists would be interested in spreading their propaganda over the already left leaning SouCal? Hmmm?
King George III had a very liberal definition or Treason, of which every signatory to our Declaration of Independence violated, at risk to their lives. With King George in mind, the Founding Fathers authored a very narrow definition of Treason in out Constitution. A document I doubt John Brennan has ever read. The definition reads,
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
And for Mr. Trump to so cavalierly so dismiss that, yes, sometimes my Irish comes out and in my tweets and I did say that it rises to and exceeds the level of high crimes and misdemeanors and nothing short of treasonous because he had the opportunity there to be able to say to the world that this is something that happened. It should never, ever happen, again. And if Russia tries at all to do it, they’re going to pay serious price for it.
I don’t expect Mr. Putin to acknowledge it. He is – you know, he’s going to deny, deny, deny. But for the president of the United States to continue to prevaricate on this issue, I think, does a great injustice and a disservice to the men and women of the intelligence law enforcement community and does a great disservice to the citizens of the United States.
And that’s why I said it was nothing short of treasonous. I didn’t mean that he committed treason. But it was a term that I used, nothing short of treasonous.
Brennan wants to impeach President Trump on no more evidence than Donny made a joke about the thirty thousand government records, emails, that Mrs. Clinton lost, a joke that either Brennan did not appreciate or did not understand. Yet Brennan wants a get out jail card for calling the President a traitor, and blames it on his ethnicity. Johnny boy have you considered sobriety?
Now if Brennan had made his ill advised remarks about King George, he would have long ago been hung. Made the remarks about Uncle Joe Stalin, he would be freezing in Siberia.
Disgraced John Brennan is claiming that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians. Yet Brennan’s action have been entirely consistent with a bitter partisan with animus towards President Donald Trump, and entirely inconsistent with anybody who actually knows anything. Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.) has nailed Brennan, from Hill:
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s top Republican lambasted former CIA Director John Brennan on Thursday for the timing of his claims about possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
In a statement, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) pointed to a New York Times op-ed published Thursday in which Brennan describes President Trump’s claims of “no collusion” between his campaign and Russia as “hogwash.”
“Director Brennan’s recent statements purport to know, as fact, that the Trump campaign colluded with a foreign power,” Burr said Thursday, questioning why, if Brennan’s assertion is based on actual intelligence, it was not included in the unclassified intelligence assessment released in early 2017.
“If his statement is based on intelligence he has seen since leaving office, it constitutes an intelligence breach. If he has some other personal knowledge of or evidence of collusion, it should be disclosed to the Special Counsel, not The New York Times,” Burr said. Burr added that Trump has the “full authority” to revoke security clearance if the statements were “purely political and based on conjecture.”
Little Andy, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, considers himself smart and of presidential timber. I disagree on both counts. Alas for Little Andy, he has trouble opening his mouth without inserting his foot. From Karl Marx
From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.
“It was never that great,” said Cuomo. “We have not reached greatness. We will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged. We will reach greatness when discrimination and stereotyping against women, 51 percent of our population, is gone … and every woman is making her full contribution.”
Little Andy was trying to pander to the cows, radical feminists. Yet rather then tying a better future for America to more individual freedom, Little Andy tied his vision to that of Karl Marx, where the state alone decides what ability to extract from each subject. Little Andy emphasis is on contribution, fitting for the governor of the most taxed state in the nation. With Cuomo and Marx, the State alone decides and the People suffer.
Fired Director of the FBI, one James Comey, whines about the Trump administration revoking the security clearance of the former Director of the CIA, Johns Brennan, from Hill:
Former FBI Director James Comey hit back at President Trump for revoking former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance, saying Trump is “sending a message that he will punish people who disagree with him and reward those who praise him.”
Comey said in a statement posted to Twitter on Wednesday evening that in a democracy “security clearances should not be used as pawns in a petty political game to distract voters from even bigger problems.”
Jimmy my boy, buy a clue. A security clearance is not a reward. It is issued to a person believed capable of understanding and protecting classified information. Brennan has proven himself either unable or unwilling to protect classified material entrusted to him.
The government authority punishing citizens purely for the political views is Robert Mueller, who made it a federal crime to be a republican.
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In Peter Strzok, Trump-haters have picked a truly repulsive martyr to their cause
Amusingly, Lifson points out that Strzok represents himself this way at his go fund me page, in part…
Peter Strzok is a proud husband and father, a veteran of the U.S. Army and counterintelligence Special Agent who spent more than two decades in a job he loved at the FBI.
Yes, a proud husband. Just ask his girlfriend.
I’m not much of a gambler, but I’m willing to bet that the average citizen hasn’t donated Jack to this Go Fund Me account and that the vast majority of it is coming in from George Soros and the like.
Ya know what?
I agree, Peter Strzok is probably the most repulsive individual you can think of to be used as a martyr… But he does have the advantage of being truly representative of today’s Democrat Party.
Kellie Collins, a former congressional candidate in Georgia’s 10th District, was charged with themurder of her former campaign treasurer, Curtis Cain. The allegations of murder follow Collins’ advocacy for “responsible” gun control laws during her campaign. WSB-TV reports that she argued for stricter legislation “to protect the community.”
Police found Cain’s body in Collins’s apartment with a gunshot wound. Cain did not come in to work last Tuesday, prompting deputies to check in on him. Police estimated that he was dead for roughly a week.
Who is it that needs controlling again?
I’ll tell you this… If we could get the Democrats to stop shooting each other the murder rate via guns would go down something like 90%
If a network camera man was attacked by a mob of violent left wing nut cases Antifa thugs, did anything happen? From Daily Wire:
Protests designed to mark the one-year anniversary of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia — which left a counter-protester and a state trooper dead — turned violent Saturday night when black-clad members of Antifa joined what was supposed to be a rally for peace.
A group of Antifa protesters went after NBC News reporter Cal Perry as he tried to cover the march, leading to a harrowing scene.
NBC’s cameraman on the scene became Antifa’s prime target.
The rallies in Charlottesville Saturday were supposed to be about opposing the radicalization and rise of white supremacy, but Antifa showed up early and trouble began almost as soon as the “anti-Fascist” parade stepped off the grounds of the University of Virginia.
When Jim Acosta was de-platformed, a favorite tactic of hie employer, at a rally for President Donny the media screamed bloody murder. When a media camera was attacked by Antifa thugs, the media snored. If it doesn’t fit the narrative, it did not happen.
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