A steady undercurrent in the Deep Throat story is the question of motive. Why did Felt decide to disclose now, after 30 years of silence? Yesterday, I noted the money angle. The Vanity Fair article (written by family lawyer John O'Connor) suggests that this was the deciding factor for Mark Felt:

At one lunch at a scenic restaurant overlooking the Pacific, Joan and Mark [junior] sat their father down to lay out the case for full, public disclosure. Felt argued with them, according to his son, warning them not to betray him. "I don't want this out," Felt said. "And if it got in the papers, I'd guess I'd know who put it there." But they persisted. They explained that they wanted their father's legacy to be heroic and permanent, not anonymous. And beyond their main motive—posterity—they thought that there might eventually be some profit in it. "Bob Woodward's gonna get all the glory for this, but we could make at least enough money to pay some bills, like the debt I've run up for the kids' education," Joan recalls saying. "Let's do it for the family." With that, both children remember, he finally agreed. "He wasn't particularly interested," Mark says, "but he said, 'That's a good reason.'"

Although the Felts were not paid for the Vanity Fair article, the W$J discusses the possibility that they could receive a $1 million advance on a book about Felt's exploits. (Woodward would make the obvious co-author, but it appears that he has already written his book.) This figure may be exaggerated in light of O'Connor's disclosure that Felt's "memory for details seems to wax and wane," but all of this talk about money makes me wonder whether Mark Felt is really on board or whether his children are outing him for their own benefit.

In the Vanity Fair article, O'Connor portrays Felt as enfeebled and weak, both physically and mentally. Although O'Connor claims to have received Felt's permission to publish the story, notice the wording of the disclosure: "I have written this piece, in fact, after witnessing the decline of Felt's health and mental acuity, and after receiving his and Joan's permission to reveal this information, normally protected by provisions of lawyer-client privilege."

Just after recounting the story quoted above about Joan and Mark junior's attempts to persuade their father to come out, O'Connor notes: "Felt had come to an interim decision: he would 'cooperate,' but only with the assistance of Bob Woodward." He then describes all of the failed attempts to get Woodward's cooperation. Indeed, it is clear that Woodward never agreed with the family to disclose Felt's identity before his death. From today's WaPo:

Woodward and others at The Post were caught by surprise. Woodward had known that family members was [sic] considering going public; in fact, they had talked repeatedly with Woodward about the possibility of jointly writing a book to reveal the news. An e-mail from Felt's daughter over the Memorial Day weekend continued to hold out the idea that Woodward and Felt would disclose the secret together.

Throughout those contacts, Woodward was dogged by reservations about Felt's mental condition, he said yesterday, wondering whether the source was competent to undo the long-standing pledge of anonymity that bound them.

Finally, consider the last paragraph of O'Connor's article:

I believe that Mark Felt is one of America's greatest secret heroes. Deep in his psyche, it is clear to me, he still has qualms about his actions, but he also knows that historic events compelled him to behave as he did: standing up to an executive branch intent on obstructing his agency's pursuit of the truth. Felt, having long harbored the ambivalent emotions of pride and self-reproach, has lived for more than 30 years in a prison of his own making, a prison built upon his strong moral principles and his unwavering loyalty to country and cause. But now, buoyed by his family's revelations and support, he need feel imprisoned no more.

His family's revelations? All of this is very revealing. Perhaps O'Connor could clarify what sort of permission he received from Felt, because all of the other evidence points to disclosure by his children over their father's objections. Maybe this doesn't make a bit of difference to some people, but I find the image of the children pushing their reluctant father into this at least a bit unseemly.

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