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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us June 29, 2005 Mixed feelings left on Deep Throat By Vickie Aldous Ashland Daily Tidings Mark Felt, revealed at the beginning of the month as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s secret Watergate source, may be a traitor to some conservative pundits, but many people in Ashland consider him to be a hero. Interest in Watergate has increased since Vanity Fair published an article stating that Felt, second-in-command at the FBI when the Watergate scandal broke, is Deep Throat. More people are renting the movie “All the President’s Men” and checking out the book of the same title that chronicles Woodward and Bernstein’s months-long quest to find out the true extent of corruption in the government, according to staff at D.J.’s Video and the Ashland Public Library. Browsing through the stacks at the library, Ashland resident Jim Niebel, a senior citizen, said it has been fascinating to read recent news accounts of Felt’s role in aiding Woodward and Bernstein. Niebel noted that Felt may have had some desire for vengeance since he was passed over for promotion to become FBI director. L. Patrick Gray instead was appointed to the top post. “But he did the right thing,” Niebel said. “Some that damn him and are the most vocal now are some of the guilty perpetrators of Watergate.” West Virginian David Burton, 48, who stopped in Ashland while on an RV tour with his wife, said he is a registered Republican, but also believes Felt’s actions were correct. “He’s a man of conscience. What Richard Nixon did was wrong. What the administration did was wrong. If we had more people like Mark Felt, there would be less corruption in government,” Burton said. “He was a man of conscience who couldn’t go to his superiors.” Gray, the FBI director, admitted before the Senate Watergate committee that he had burned files taken from Howard Hunt’s White House safe. The White House consultant had fabricated documents to implicate President John F. Kennedy in the 1963 assassination of South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem. Hunt also had collected information on Sen. Edward Kennedy, Woodward and Bernstein wrote in “All the President’s Men.” Burton said he has respect for Nixon despite the Watergate scandal. “I’m still a fan of Nixon, although he’s a crook. If he had admitted he knew about it, he would have gone down in history as a great hero rather than a crook. He managed to get us out of Vietnam. He managed to get the soldiers out of Vietnam with minimal loss of life,” said Burton, who is now retired after a full career with the U.S. military. “He also opened up negotiations with the East.” For others, the wide-ranging corruption in the government colors all their perceptions of Nixon. While most people are aware of the bungled burglary and bugging attempt of the Democratic National Committee office in the Watergate complex, others also know that members of Nixon’s re-election committee and White House staff conducted a systematic and wide-ranging campaign to spy on presidential challengers and their families and disrupt the candidates’ campaigns. Activities ranged from the illegal, like secret wiretaps, to the juvenile, like ordering pizzas and other items to arrive COD at a Democratic fundraising event, according to “All the President’s Men.” The administration was so upset about leaks, government officials and reporters were bugged. A group of high-ranking White House officials charged with stopping the leaks was internally nicknamed the “Plumbers,” Woodward and Bernstein reported. White House spokesmen and Republican Sen. Bob Dole went on the offensive against The Washington Post, charging the newspaper was promoting the campaign of Democratic challenger George McGovern, and that its editors and executives were part of a liberal elite out of touch with regular Americans. Allie Corcoran, 18, a recent Ashland High School graduate working at D.J.’s, said she learned about Watergate in her sophomore year, but the subject came up again at the end of this school year after Mark Felt was revealed as Woodward and Bernstein’s source. “There was corruption at a lot of different levels,” Corcoran said. “To a certain extent, kids my age don’t have trust in government and don’t really like government. But with Nixon, it was pretty surprising they would stoop that low.” Many people echoed those sentiments that the government can’t be trusted. Although some say Vietnam and the Watergate scandal marked the end of an era of innocence for America, Niebel said he was shocked by the scandal but didn’t have a sense at the time of suddenly being exposed to harsh realities. “In my case, I had sufficient information about the complexities of life in this century. It wasn’t to me a sense of innocence being lost,” Niebel said, adding that he does think the episode contributed to increasing cynicism and awareness in the country. Continuing distrust of government appears to be fairly widespread, and almost a given for younger generations who aren’t even old enough to remember Watergate. “I don’t trust them at all. It just reaffirms my lack of trust,” said Laura Beaton, 28, as she sat on a bench beside a resting dog. Chris, 52, who declined to give her last name, said she has been upset by other scandals, including the Iran-Contra affair that marked former President Ronald Reagan’s tenure. “That appalled me as much as Watergate,” she said, standing by the washing machines at a laundromat. “I think the White House — no matter who’s in office — hides a lot of information from the public.” Although it may be small consolation to people who distrust the government, many people who worked for Nixon’s White House and Committee to Re-elect the President, as well as members of the FBI and Justice Department, were so bothered by what they saw going on that they agreed to speak to Woodward and Bernstein. In fact, while the title to their 1974 book is “All the President’s Men,” Woodward and Bernstein dedicated the book to their parents and “To the President’s other men and women — in the White House and elsewhere — who took risks to provide us with confidential information. Without them there would have been no Watergate story told by the Washington Post.” Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 482-3456 x 3018 or [email protected]. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams