Editorial: Right kind of loyalty

Thursday, June 2, 2005 | 9:03 a.m.

One of the great mysteries remaining from the Watergate scandal finally was solved this week. On Tuesday the nation learned the identity of the man who was a pivotal, anonymous source for the newspaper that led the way in exposing corruption by President Richard Nixon and his advisers. "Deep Throat," as he was dubbed by The Washington Post, is W. Mark Felt, who at the time of the Watergate break-in was the deputy director of the FBI. Because the FBI was investigating the break-in and its subsequent coverup, Felt had access to information that enabled Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to confirm just how rampant corruption was in the White House. Ultimately, Nixon resigned in disgrace in 1974 and several of his top aides went to prison.

Felt obviously took a great risk, even though he was assisting Woodward anonymously, because Nixon was not above seeking retribution against government officials he suspected of leaking information to the media. It should seem obvious that Felt's actions were just, in that they played a role in bringing down a corrupt president. But in the two days since the revelation, Nixon apologists -- made up mostly of former aides to the president -- have tried to smear Felt's reputation, saying he was disloyal by sharing what knowledge he had as a law enforcement official with The Washington Post. The Nixon apologists intentionally are trying to cloud the real issue, which was the unprecedented corruption in the White House. Indeed, they are placing loyalty to the White House above loyalty to one's country.

It's possible -- although we don't know for certain -- that Felt could have had an axe to grind or an ulterior motive in sharing with The Washington Post what he knew about Watergate. After J. Edgar Hoover died in 1972, Felt was passed over to be the FBI director for a White House insider instead. There also was considerable tension between the White House and the FBI over the agency's independence. Felt wasn't an angel, either. He was convicted in 1980 of approving illegal break-ins at the homes of people associated with members of the Weather Underground, a domestic terrorist group. (Felt later was pardoned by President Ronald Reagan.)

The misdirection play by the Nixon apologists shouldn't obscure the fact that the president of the United States obstructed justice in an attempt to cover up the truth that his re-election campaign would go to any length, including breaking laws and destroying lives, to hang on to power. For Felt's role in exposing such dangerous arrogance -- and an affirmation that not even the president is above the law -- our nation should be grateful that he did the right thing.