Founder's letter published
San Diego Union-Tribune
June 10, 2005

'Deep Throat': heroic or not?
W. Mark Felt is no hero.

Richard M. Nixon's abuse of power notwithstanding, he and his administration were no exception to a long history of presidential abuse of power, up to and including William Jefferson Clinton.

Assumed or denied power corrupts, or at least makes people do stupid things. Felt, or "Deep Throat," was little more than a disgruntled employee who didn't get the FBI director's job he thought was his after the death of J. Edgar Hoover. So, in his mentor's style, he authorized illegal searches of people's homes and surreptitiously took down a president.

Felt is certainly a hero to anti-establishment revolutionaries, anti-Vietnam War radicals and the media revitalized by Watergate. However, he did not earn the status of a national hero. That title belongs exclusively to the men and women of the military who defend our freedom.