Deep Throat Rattles ...

The opening of the Watergate Papers at the University of Texas on Friday was bound to renew speculation about the thirty year old mystery of the identity of"Deep Throat." Bought from Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein for $5,000,000, the newly opened collection does not yet include the documents identifying the source of Woodward's and Bernstein's inside information, which led to Richard Nixon's resignation as President. They have always said that they would not reveal the identity of Deep Throat until his death. As soon as their manuscript collection was opened in Texas, Adrian Havill, a biographer of the two Washington Post investigators, announced his belief that Deep Throat is – wait for it – George Herbert Walker Bush.

On a more serious note, John Dean, the White House Counsel in the Nixon administration, had an op-ed in yesterday's LA Times in which he declares that Deep Throat's identity will soon be known."Bob Woodward, a reporter on the team that covered the Watergate story, has advised his executive editor at the Washington Post that Throat is ill," Dean wrote.

... The source who informed me that Woodward leaked the news of Throat's illness to the executive editor of the Post gave me that information either on"deep background" or"off the record" (I never could get the distinction of those rules straightened out). So I apologize to my source if this information was never meant to be public, but it is a tidbit too hot to keep sitting on.

When Kevin Drum at Political Animal posted the announcement of Deep Throat's serious illness, the discussion in comments there tended to focus attention on 91-year-old W. Mark Felt, who was Assistant Director of the FBI in the Nixon years. Although he has denied it, Felt has been identified as a likely possibility in the past and is known to be seriously ill. If you were watching the Superbowl yesterday, you know that G. H. W. Bush is not.