[Vision2020] W. Mark Felt, hero or heel?

[joanopyr at earthlink.net]

Carl writes:

> Regardless of whether you think Mr. Felt (Deep Throat, who I always
thought 
> was Hal Holbrook) is a hero or a heel. don't you think it's kind of cool 
> that he's a University of Idaho alum?  If he'd gone to Boise State, he
would 
> have been one of the Watergate burglars.

Ha!  Good one!  And so true . . .

I see that Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, G. Gordon Liddy, Chuck Colson, and
etc., have gone into full spin mode.  Bringing down Nixon led directly,
they claim, to our ignominious pull-out from Vietnam and to the Khmer Rouge
rising to power in Cambodia.  (Nixon's illegal invasion of Cambodia and his
carpet bombing of both that country and Laos had nothing whatsoever to do
with subsequent events.)  What sad, pathetic historical revisionism.

What's interesting to me about Mark Felt is that "Deep Throat" was bringing
down the Nixon Administration at a time when Idaho was a true political
powerhouse, way back in the 1970s.  We had Frank Church in the US Senate,
and, not long after, Cecil Andrus became Jimmy Carter's Secretary of the
Interior.  Thirty years ago, our state was a powerful player on the
national stage.  No more.  Since this became a one-party state, both
national parties have felt free to ignore us.  Dirk Kempthorne angled
openly (and shamelessly) for a position in both the first and the second
GWB administrations, and he was ignominiously passed over.  Larry Craig has
some sway in the Senate, but nothing akin to Frank Church's power.

Sorry, Tim Lohrmann, but I think we ought to have a parade for Mark Felt. 
Forget his 1980 conviction and his 1981 Reagan pardon; let's hark back to
our 1970s glory days, when Washington, DC was obliged to sit up and take
notice when Idaho (and even secret Idahoans) spoke.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.auntie-establishment.com