Today, on both the news and the internet, I heard mentioned for the first time the possibility that Dear Leader 41 might be the infamous "Deep Throat" of Watergate fame.
At first, I was incredulous, mainly because I never heard his name mentioned as a possibility before, and also because I thought he was part of the Cheney/Rumsfeld crowd who resented the investigations into Nixon.
However, I just read this letter on Poynter which has offered up a number of interesting facts I was previously unaware of (scroll down to the letter with the headline "Author: George Herbert Walker Bush is Deep Throat" posted on 2/4/2005).
First off, the point should be made that previously unreleased notes of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were just placed in a diplay at the University of Texas at Austin, which is interesting in and of itself. But the letter makes some more substantial, interesting arguments:
Certainly nearly everyone who reads Poynter was mystified when George W. Bush -- a President who arguably hates the press -- gave Bob Woodward seven hours of interviews which became the core of two best-selling and largely laudatory books. He also urged his cabinet to cooperate with Woodward and many did.
The explanation: George Herbert Walker Bush, the president's father, is Deep Throat.
I have to admit I was somewhat befuddled as to why Bush would give ANY journalist so much open access to him and his cabinet...especially one who helped bring down a previous (Republican) President. But then again, there are many things I do not understand about our dear Bushpanzee.
Adrian Havill, the letter writer, goes on to make his case:
Historians will immediately point out that Bush, the elder, wasn't in Washington between 1971 and 1973 but lived at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York where he was ambassador to the United Nations. Okay. But my examination of White House records at the National Archives show Bush attending many Washington state dinners and weekly cabinet meetings during that period. More importantly, he was in Washington nearly every weekend where he owned a house and where his son, Neil, attended St. Alban's prep school during the week. Seven of the eight meetings between Deep Throat and Woodward that are chronicled in "All The President's Men" take place on a weekend.
Did Bush have motivation? You bet. It was Richard Nixon who urged Bush to leave a safe seat in Congress, hinting there would be a position as assistant Secretary of the Treasury waiting for him if he failed to win a Senate seat held by Ralph Yarborough. When Bush lost, Nixon reneged and asked him to take the U.N. slot instead but teased him by hinting he would be the replacement for Spiro Agnew in 1972. Instead, he was given the thankless task of heading the Republican National Committee in 1973. The elder Bush got his revenge in the end, by standing up at a cabinet meeting in August of 1974 and becoming the first person in Nixon's inner circle to ask the President to resign.
Well, I would definitely venture that this offers potential evidence of the motivation and the means. Mr. Havill goes on to speculate as to how Mr. Bush and Mr. Woodward could have even met:
How did they meet? Probably at the Pentagon where Woodward was stationed in the late 1960s. The former President made a 16-day visit to Vietnam in 1967 and briefed military brass upon his return. Certainly the two, both Yalies and both Navy men, could find common ground.
Woodward claims never to have even interviewed the former President. At the same time, in his 1998 book, Shadow, he boasted that Bush had aides dropped off classified documents to his home which became the basis of a Washington Post front page story.
Okay, so if Bob Woodward has never spoken to Bush 41, then why would the former President write him a chummy three-page letter in the late 1990s? The "Dear Bob" letter's 7th paragraph begins, "Watergate was your watershed. For you, it was an earthshaking event that made you a media star -- deservedly so . . ."
Hmmmmm.....
And I love the way Mr. Havill finishes his statement:
When I presented this theory to Len Garment, a former Nixon aide, he demurred, saying that Bush wasn't the type of daredevil to skulk around in underground garages. Perhaps, but then who would have figured the former President to go skydiving in his eighties.
Thus Texas may be the perfect repository for Woodstein's notes.
What really ties all this together for me is the well-known fact that the Bush family is notorious for "settling scores"; any reading of an interview of George HW, Barbara or scores of the other Bush clan will quickly show you how they live to take down anyone who has ever dissed them or gotten in their way. Therefore, is it possible that George Sr. got his panties in a wad about Tricky Dick??
Looks possible to me...