POLL: Mark Felt...Hero or Traitor?

[HomerJS]

Now that Deep Throat has ben revealed talking blowhards on the right are spinning this labeling Mark Felt and the press as enemies and traitorous. What do you think?

 

[JackStorm]

The man exposed a crooked President, so he's hardly a traitor. But I wouldn't go as far as calling him a hero either, since we don't know what his motive for exposing the crook was.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: JackStorm
The man exposed a crooked President, so he's hardly a traitor. But I wouldn't go as far as calling him a hero either, since we don't know what his motive for exposing the crook was.

Ya, not sure he's a Hero, but would say he comes pretty close to it. He did the right thing at great personal risk.

 

[Amplifier]

I always thought it was the smoking man.

 

[tommywishbone]

Hero or traitor? I'll vote for..... "just a really really old guy, who did something so long ago, that it doesn't matter and nobody cares." Just my .02.

 

[digitalsm]

I say neither.

He did too many crooked things himself at the FBI for him to ever be considered a hero. If he were a hero he would have blown the whistle on the FBI long before Nixon was elected.

The FBI under Hoover, and Felt(he was doing alot of the day to day running of the FBI) committed far more crimes than the Nixon admin ever could have dreamed about.

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: JackStorm
The man exposed a crooked President, so he's hardly a traitor. But I wouldn't go as far as calling him a hero either, since we don't know what his motive for exposing the crook was.

he said it was because he was mad at Nixon for apointing a political figure as the head of the cia

 

[randym431]

This is funny. You see all these old Nixon people, some once sent to prison, now and still supporting Nixon. These people never learn. Crooks till the end.

 

[conjur]

Look who's calling him a traitor (Colson, Buchanan, etc.) People who had to serve time for their CRIMES or were otherwise very deep in the Nixon administration and still denying the CRIMES committed.

 

[Starbuck1975]

This is funny. You see all these old Nixon people, some once sent to prison, now and still supporting Nixon. These people never learn. Crooks till the end.

Perhaps because Nixon took the fall for many of them...rather then drag the nation into a dividing and partisan impeachment hearing, Nixon did the honorably thing by stepping down...Nixon took responsibility for the actions of his administration, regardless of the extent to which you believe he was actually involved in Watergate.

Look who's calling him a traitor (Colson, Buchanan, etc.) People who had to serve time for their CRIMES or were otherwise very deep in the Nixon administration and still denying the CRIMES committed.

I wouldn't go so far as to call Felt a traitor, but given that his service to the FBI extended prior to the Nixon Administration, Felt certainly had some dirt on his hands as well.

Watergate exposed the dirty underbelly of American politics, and while the crimes committed are inexcusable, I would guess that both parties continue to engage in such dirty politics.

 

[Jhhnn]

Meh. Given that the AG was complicit in the whole affair, the only way that justice could be served was via the leak method. The simple fact that Felt knew as much as he did indicates a much, much wider effort at coverup than just Nixon's inner circle. Now, of course, Felt is accused of the ultimate affront in Rightwing groupthink- disloyalty, and receives the attribution of sour grapes as his true motivation. Which should pretty well put to rest any claim they've ever made to principle. Felt's own remarks show just how torn he was by the whole loyallty routine, and about just how much that compromises otherwise honest men. The only one of the conspirators who deserves any respect at all is Liddy, simply because he followed the code of Omerta, paid the price for his actions w/o complaint or compromise. That, at least, is Integrity of some sort or another.

 

[gallivanter]

Originally posted by: Jhhnn
Meh. Given that the AG was complicit in the whole affair, the only way that justice could be served was via the leak method. The simple fact that Felt knew as much as he did indicates a much, much wider effort at coverup than just Nixon's inner circle. Now, of course, Felt is accused of the ultimate affront in Rightwing groupthink- disloyalty, and receives the attribution of sour grapes as his true motivation. Which should pretty well put to rest any claim they've ever made to principle. Felt's own remarks show just how torn he was by the whole loyallty routine, and about just how much that compromises otherwise honest men. The only one of the conspirators who deserves any respect at all is Liddy, simply because he followed the code of Omerta, paid the price for his actions w/o complaint or compromise. That, at least, is Integrity of some sort or another.

Mr. Colson deserves to also be in that category. He took the punishment for his actions and came out a better man. He also chose not to attempt to take down the CIA or FBI, even though they may have attempted to do that to him.


As for the question, neither. The answer, as with many things, lies somewhere in the middle. He surely will be a hero to some, and a villian to others, but the reality is that he is a bit of both.

There were other options available to him instead of the leak and concealed route. He could have come completely forward, and the result would have been the same, maybe even better. We will never know. Further, most on the 'right' who vehemently dislike Mr. Felt do not feel that way simply because he was disloyal, but instead because of the aftermath of his actions. America suffered a great deal because of Watergate, and while ultimately the blame lies with those who broke the law, there were no winners, only losers due to the weakened Presidency. Perhaps, and I don't pretend to know the answers, something less destructive to the nation could have transpired.

 

[daniel1113]

Where's the "idiot" option?

 

[Czar]

could the two who voted that he was a traitor explain their reasoning?

 

[Moonbeam]

My impulse is to say he was no hero because what he did was without personal consequence as he chose to hide and stab from the dark, but I do not know enough to judge.

 

[irwincur]

Considering that he was convicted of doing the same thing that Nixon did - you have to question his motives. He might have done the right thing - but it was self serving and not because he was an ethical man. He was just angry about being left behind.

Call him what you will - but to me a hero should have an ethical leg to stand on. He should not be the type to turn the president in, then a few years later use the same tactics as the president to do his job. By the way, he was pardonoed for his felony authorization of break ins - I wonder if people will complain about this.

 

[Zedtom]

There will be more to this story forthcoming, and that is a concern for me. Felt wants to clear up any doubts before he passes on, and he will get his chance. He and his family will be rewarded monetarily for his story, and he can name names without too much worry.

It seems like there were a lot of people in the know. Woodward and Bernstein, executives in the Washington Post organization, as well as certain individuals at the FBI. The loyalty oaths and secrecy involved in FBI work makes one wonder what they might be involved in at the present time.

 

[judasmachine]

He was a hero in the instance that he ratted out Nixon and friends, but I simply do not know enough about him to make a call on anything else. Nixon was a crook and deserved what he got. Perhaps Felt was a tool of Karma.

 

[filterxg]

I think we dump that Hero word around way too much.

 

[r0tt3n1]

Hero, Loser, criminal, etc. dont matter.
As long as The Ends Justify the Means, as is heard often lately, no?

 

[gallivanter]

Originally posted by: r0tt3n1
Hero, Loser, criminal, etc. dont matter.
As long as The Ends Justify the Means, as is heard often lately, no?

Even subscribing to that way of thinking, a great many people feel tje 'ends' were awful, hence there was no justification of his means.

 

[r0tt3n1]

Originally posted by: gallivanter

Originally posted by: r0tt3n1
Hero, Loser, criminal, etc. dont matter.
As long as The Ends Justify the Means, as is heard often lately, no?

Even subscribing to that way of thinking, a great many people feel tje 'ends' were awful, hence there was no justification of his means.

As I was too young to realize just what in the world was going on back then, I only have the `hinddsight` of history to determine from. And, along with some possibly shoddy interpolation of current and recent past events (Iran-Contra anyone?) of mine, just wanted to infer that if a situation fits your ideals, then maybe its OK? Only shades of gray...........

 

[gsaldivar]

It's funny how we judge people who "leak" information by who they leaked information on...

 

[Harvey]

Felt exposed criminal corruption in the nation's highest office. He had no alternative because he was already the number two man at the FBI, and his immediate superior, L. Patrick Gray, was known to be Nixon's man, feeding all internal investigative info on the Watergate investigation straight to the Whitehouse.

Without a question, he is a national hero. He risked his life and livelyhood to bring the truth to light. Watergate was not the start of his heroism. He originally got close to Woodward when he exposed the corruption of Nixon's disgraced Vice President, Spiro Agnew.

I find it more than a little amusing that all those who now claim Felt's actions were somehow dishonorable are the same ones we know were the Watergate bad guys. For example, dickwad Pat Buchanan was a speech writer for both Nixon and Agnew. So now, we're supposed to believe any kind of mud he and others involved in the original crimes try to toss at Felt, Woodward or Bernstein? They're just trying to cover their newly re-exposed ugly asses. We can NEVER allow the truth of what Nixon and his criminal gang did to corrupt the government of our allegedly free government. To do so is to relenquish any claim to that freedom.

What we need, now, is more heros like Mark Felt to come forward and expose the Whitehouse traitors who blew the cover of top CIA operative, Valerie Plame.

WTF!!! We're only talking about treason and blowing the sh8 out of national security. :|

 

[gallivanter]

Originally posted by: gsaldivar
It's funny how we judge people who "leak" information by who they leaked information on...

That is the point though. Many are judging him not on who he leaked information about, but rather the how and why. For example, why did he not go to the Grand Jury? He certainly could have, and such an action may have resulted in a better, and still just, outcome.