D.C. insiders are abuzz about the motives of Mark Felt’s family and how they decided to go public with one of the best-kept secrets of our times. Capitalism aside, what did Bob Woodward do – or not do – to cause Felt and his lawyer, John O’Connor, to go to Vanity Fair rather than to Woodward himself when Felt was ready to reveal his identity as “Deep Throat”? Some insiders are speculating that at some point Felt’s daughter, Joan, decided that Woodward had dropped the ball. Perhaps, they contend, she thought Woodward had used her father to achieve his own fame and had neglected his onetime close friend and mentor in recent years.
Bitterness and betrayal
After all, Felt appears to be a bitter guy – a protege of J. Edgar Hoover, he was passed over to succeed Hoover as director of the FBI – and so, the speculators continue, Felt betrays the Bureau, is instrumental in bringing down a president and now turns around and betrays the man he once mentored, Bob Woodward (now an assistant managing editor of the Washington Post and author of many political insider books). Perhaps Felt and family thought Woodward should have forever shown his ongoing gratitude for the man who propelled him from an unknown reporter into history and made him a hero to many. Alas, the revelation of Deep Throat’s identity is the final piece of a puzzle that changed American history … but the media story goes on.
Judiciary member: Felt should have quit
Former Rep. Tom Railsback, R-Ill., one of those on the famed Watergate committee – one of the Republicans who joined with all of the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee back in 1974 to recommend the impeachment of President Nixon – told me yesterday: “The honorable thing to do would have been [for Mark Felt] to go to [FBI Director] Pat Gray and convey his concerns, and then if Gray refused to do anything, he [Felt] should have resigned.” Railsback added, “He would have been given plenty of protection by the Democratic-controlled Congress at the time. It’s hard to second-guess, but that may have saved the country from that ordeal.”
Ford reunion extra-special this year
All of the “Deep Throat” buzz should make for interesting talk at the annual Gerald Ford reunion Monday evening at the Lodge in Rancho Mirage – near former President and Mrs. Ford’s California desert home. Usually held in Washington, the get-together has been relocated by Ford’s friends and former colleagues due to the former president’s declining health and inability to travel. No word yet as to whether his former House colleague and White House chief of staff, Vice President Dick Cheney, will attend, nor Defense Secretary (then and now) Donald Rumsfeld, Alan Greenspan, Bill Coleman, Carla Hills, Jim Lynn or Henry Kissinger, who have all gone in past years. But we have learned that former House GOP leader Bob Michel and former Rep. Guy Vander Jagt, R-Mich., are looking forward to going. Remember, if it hadn’t been for Mark Felt, and Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting followed by President Nixon’s resignation, there wouldn’t have likely been a President Ford, much less a Gerald Ford reunion.
Fly me to the moon
Over dinner at Cafe Milano the other evening, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin told me he’s not encouraging kids to become astronauts: “They can find their own moon to reach for.” He was in D.C. promoting his new children’s book, “Reaching For The Moon.”
More buzz with Buzz
As for the space program: “It appears turbulent. It’s really in transformation because of the Columbia accident and the redirection of the president, and NASA now has a new administrator, Mike Griffin, who is an engineer, whereas his predecessor [Dan Goldin] was a financial guy,” said Aldrin, who agrees with Griffin’s policies – in favor of space exploration. He added, “It may be unsettling to some, but Griffin will implement the plan to team with major corporations.”
Looking toward the private sector
Aldrin also told me that he thinks “multi-purpose spacecraft can provide the needs of private space travel.” He’s trying to use some of what’s been tried and proven to serve lunar exploration and space tourism. “It’s three to five years away in the private sector,” predicted Aldrin. He’s helping to promote a free ticket to space with Diet 7-Up. It’s attention-getting and popular and will generate a lot of interest instead of five minutes of weightlessness. Aldrin said optimistically, “This all moves toward a significant partnership between government and the private sector.”
Aldrin pointed out the cost factor: “It’s very expensive for a passenger seat into space, and if we use government assets it’s not popular unless we open it up to everyone.” He suggested that perhaps a lottery might solve this problem. Although the planning will start soon, he said, “the regulatory people will have to look carefully – perhaps eight to 10 years – before it’s effective.”
From the moon to Montclair
Aldrin pulled a Goldie Hawn last week. He went to his boyhood home, where he lived until 1947, in Montclair, N.J., and knocked on the door. “The people were blown away,” he told me. He also visited his elementary school, where he hadn’t set foot in 65 years.