I see that my deceptive title has drawn you into my web.

So I must confess that Larry Johnson is, in fact, not Deep Throat.  I mean, at least as far as I know.

Actually, I take that back.  How do I know he's not Deep Throat?

Come to think of it, I don't.  Whoa.

We have our "deep throat" and Leahy and Shummer are the recipients of the information.  See you  on the other side.

Reprinted from The Satirical Political Report http://satiricalpolitical.com

Proving once again that his inside access as a journalist is unparalleled, Bob Woodward,  appearing today with Larry King, discussed his exclusive interview with Saddam Hussein — conducted just moments before the deposed Iraqi dictator was hanged for his crimes.

Wearing the black hood of the executioner to conceal his identity, a trick he learned during Watergate days from Deep Throat, Woodward extracted truly remarkable revelations from Saddam, even as Woodward placed the noose around the doomed man’s neck.

The transcript released by Woodward reveals that Saddam was strongly opposed to the U.S. invasion, but was reluctant to publicly criticize the Bush Administration, according to the longstanding protocol of honor among thieves.

There are many in the White House who must see and know the dark business afoot: invading Iraq without due cause; outing a CIA agent; knowingly signing wrongfully worded bill into law; etc. If only someone (like Andrew Card) would DO THE RIGHT THING our country would take a giant leap forward.

This woman or man would go down as the greatest whistleblower ever, an unparalleled American hero. Deep Throat would be a minor footnote to this person. But it must be someone in-the-know, and willing to place loyalty to the Constitution above loyalty to George Bush. To think that simply telling the truth could return this country to greatness.

HARDBALL'S POLITICAL PLAYS OF 2005

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Read on for the first sneak peek...

Deep Throat ~= Batman

Both Abrams and Miller attempted to equate her with Woodward, Bernstein and Felt as a courageous defender of the First Amendment.  Both fell short. Felt's grandson, Nick Jones, who accepted the award on behalf of his grandfather, did much better with a different equation.

It is quite instructive and shocking, even with this administration, that the outing of a CIA agent, her front company, and god knows how many other agents and operations, is met with a collective shrug from wingnut circles. While a blow job gave them the vapors, a genuine breach of national security gives them no pause, gives them no reason to abandon "the architect". Political power trumps everything -- even the safety of our nation.

Given what we know of the case, we know that Rove violated his non-disclose agreement. We know that Rove acted unethically, without regard to the consequences of his actions. Whether a crime has been committed remains to be seen, but shouldn't matter a whit.

The technical letter of the law isn't a shield from accountability, an antidote to endangering national security, an amnesiac from the lies McClellan -- and by extension Bush and Co -- spewed to the American people two years ago.

Right-thinking people -- even Republicans -- should look at these unfolding events with horror. I would certainly feel betrayed and angry if a Democratic administration thusly endangered national security and undermined our non-proliferation efforts. I wouldn't make apologies for it. I wouldn't rationalize it, attempt to distract with irrelevant, tangential points. I would demand accountability.

But to modern-day Republicans and their apologists, they can do no wrong. No Republican's action is worthy of scorn or censure. They are perfect. Flawless. Immune to error. Godlike.

How someone could be reduced to that level is beyond me. Republicans have now sent notice that they place allegiance to party and power above their allegiance to the United States of America. To them, the elephant flies above the Stars and Stripes.

The Democratic majorities were undone in large part to the endemic corruption that afflicted the long-entrenched Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. It's the curse of any party that rules for too long, the insidious creep of hubris, corruption, and sense of entitlement which we, as a species, can't seem to avoid.

The GOP is now facing those very same pressures, and exposing that corruption and hubris in spectacular fashion to the American public. A party that believes it holds a "permanent majority" is under no pressure to behave ethically and work for the common good above all else. Their missteps have been big. Their crimes increasingly brazen.

And their own partisans, their foot soldiers, refuse to hold their party accountable. Rather, they join in the rationalizations and embolden their leaders to stay the course. No crime against the nation is bad enough for these guys. No ethical violations too distasteful. They applaud and cheer from the sidelines, as though their nation and their party is somehow well served by such shenanigans. Neither are.

I don't care about the Republican Party. They can continue to rot from within. But I do care about this country and so do a lot of folks who suddenly don't like what they're seeing. The GOP can continue to pretend that rot smells like roses, even as the stench nauseates the rest of us.

That disconnect can only help quicken their eventual exit. The big question, however, is how much damage they will inflict on the nation's national security before they're gone.

From a media perspective, however, the show has been dazzling, as seemingly every living Watergate-era figure pours out of studio green rooms to celebrate their accomplishments. (Luckily, it's not like they had far to go to get there. You're talking about a class of people who own their own earpieces and microphones.) If I have to choose a winner, however, for the single biggest pantload yet dropped on us by the media -- and rest assured, I do have to chose a winner -- it clearly goes to the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan.

And so on, for eight paragraphs. Noonan's effort is especially noteworthy for one feat: here's a column about Watergate, about the uncovering of Watergate, about the "heros" of Watergate, and there's one small, teensy-weensy but critically important word that is entirely missing from the column. And I do mean, entirely. Care to guess what it is?

Crime.

He then proceeds to spend the rest of the column talking about Felt's misdeeds at the FBI, and how his motivation was that he was passed over for the top job at the FBI.

This from the man who published the name of an undercover CIA agent divulged to him as pure political payback?  I think my head hurts.

More of what I think is after the jump.

After decades of speculation, with names from Pat Buchanan to Poppa Bush to Diane Sawyer put forward as possibilities, a former FBI official has stepped forward and claimed he was "Deep Throat".

Vanity Fair claims that Deep Throat was an FBI official named W. Mark Felt who had apparently been ashamed of his role leaking information to Woodward and Bernstein during their investigation of the Watergate affair that eventually, as most of us surely know, brought down Richard Nixon's presidency. However, the Washington Post has not confirmed Deep Throat's identity yet, so this is subject to change.

On a lighter note, if some enterprising reporter was leaked information about the Bush Administration's malfeasance, what would this courageous source be named? My personal favorite would be Barely Legal 3: The Man who Brought Down a Presidency.

Update: And lo, it is confirmed.