He had information, which had value, and he sold it (his price was vengeance, and pique, and if those Watergate-era photos are sending any messages across the decades, smugness).
Just because Nixon and his people didn't know the terms (make me FBI head and I won't leak like a wooden boat that sat out back in the yard for fourteen years), doesn't mean a deal wasn't there for their making. If Nixon had appointed him, he would have kept his mouth shut, so the Nixon government wouldn't unravel, and cost him the job he so openly coveted.
And does anyone really doubt that such an amoral opportunist wouldn't have proactively gotten involved in defending his position within the regime that was threatened? And taken action to protect himself within that regime?
It's interesting to contrast and compare attitudes towards Mark Felt and Linda Tripp.
Boy, now THERE'S an interesting alternate universe...
We're not even sure he wasn't blackmailing the Deep-Throat Juniors he had to be getting info from!
All in all, how it all turned out seems relatively well.
Hey Joan Felt and greedy son.....you have exposed your father and grandfather to an ugly ruin yourselves.....kind of takes the hero worship right out.
Maybe. That is speculation. Obviously however, Felt had no interest in saving the Nixon administration from itself.
"He was an opportunist, plain and simple"
And being an opportunist, Felt would have come out of the box long ago to capitalize on the story had HE BELIEVED that he was a hero that was intent only on saving the Republic. The fact that this has come out now and primarly from the coaxing of his family in order to profit is testimony that MF KNOWS his actions were criminal, cowardly, and as corrupt as the corruption he was exposing which did grave damage to the country.
If he was really interested in seeing justice done, as he saw it, and if he couldn't go to anyonme in the Bureau or DOJ, then why not go to Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox? Instead, he chose to go to the newspapers.
Your time line may be off somewhat. I believe when Hoover died installing Pat Grey was close to immediate, and announced, surprising Felt and no doubt many others at the Bureau, who since Calvin Coolidge days didn't take kindly to the thought of outsiders calling the shots. It was a quick done deal, that brought the Bureau's long held tradition of approving their own to a sudden close. I have no doubt many felt betrayed.
The book "Silent Coup" is a great book about the breakin...
Watergate was small potatoes compared to the crap FDR and LBJ pulled when they were in the White House. And the MSM knew about it, they chose not to report it. They were out to get Nixon, and they would find any little thing to try to get him out. That's Watergate in a nutshell.
Apparently, Nixon did know what Felt wanted:
Nixon: "Well, if they’ve got a leak down at the FBI, why the hell can’t Gray tell us what the hell is left . . . ?”
Haldeman: "We know what’s left, and we know who leaked it.”
Nixon: "Somebody in the FBI?”
Haldeman: "Yes, sir. Mark Felt. You can’t say anything about this because it will screw up our source and there’s a real concern. [Attorney General John] Mitchell is the only one who knows about this and he feels strongly that we better not do anything because . . .”
Nixon: "Do anything? Never.”
Haldeman: "If we move on him, he’ll go out and unload everything. He knows everything that’s to be known in the FBI. He has access to absolutely everything . . .”
Nixon: "You know what I’d do with him, the bastard? Well that’s all I want to hear about it.”
Haldeman: "I think he wants to be in the top spot.”
Nixon: "That’s a hell of a way for him to get to the top ... Is he Catholic?”
Haldeman: "Jewish.”
Nixon: "Christ, put a Jew in there?”
Haldeman: "Well, that could explain it, too.”
Surely "evil" in high places is the most "evil" of all..
He fed a willing bunch of other malefactors multiplying his deeds..
Trained with unlimited "security assets" and authorized to perform it efficiently..
Would make a killer movie or even documentary.. making Micheal the Hut's documentary pale into insignificance.. He manufactered a conspiracy of very far reaching proportions..
But the left would come out against an expose' of this like a Medusa of MoonBats.. Entire world views would be threatened.. Oh! to beat them over the head with the hard irony of it all.. This is a blockbuster.. Bill and Hillary also were set to prosecute Nixon..
You're right.
He was a Hooverboy, with Hooverboy ideas about power and how to get it and especially how to KEEP it.
He didn't want Nixon, he wanted the FBI.
This Felt guy should be tried and convicted for treason and espionage.
I listened to calls to Cspan, and a surprising majority felt he was breaking the law (or FBI rules) and he was no hero.
ping
Mark Felt is a hero and Linda Tripp is a villan. I don't get it.