Impuning Mark Felt by suggesting he was angry over being passed over for a promotion is to misunderstand the entire history of The FBI and Mark Felt's place in it.   The FBI as we know it now is not what it was shortly after the death of Edgar Hoover, when Mark Felt first started feeding info to Woodward (not Bernstien people, just Woodward)

Many of the men in my family were in Law Enforcement from the 1930s right on to the present day.. a couple in the FBI. As a result, I've had more than my share of expsoure to the history of the agency. I do believe however, that the average American knows very little about it's origins, its evolution and the crisis that was going on within the Agency at the time of Watergate.

I would suggest that to truly grasp his motives requires a good working knowledge of the entire Hoover Era, the denegeration of the Agency into an arm of Presidential Vengeance and the massive re-structuring that took place after Hoovers death. Felt was not so much pissed about not getting the top job as he was about the direction the Agency was going to continue in, a direction he and many other veterans of the earlier days wanted to see reversed. Much of what those fellows wanted eventually did take place and The Agency bgan working better with local and State level Law Enforcement. But..that's a whole 'nuther story...

This is not a simple thing as people are making it out to be. I do hope Mark Felt is well enough to communicate his own complex reasons for doing what he did since we could all learn a lot about the Era from such disclosures.

I am a little sad that Felt's family was apparently motivated by greed in pushing him to out himself. His original agreement with Woodward was ironclad and indeed, The Washinton Post had to scramble to make sure that it was the felt family that had nullified the agreement by their actions before they confirmed the story.

We shall see, folks, we shall see.

Don't judge the fellow unless you have enough of an understanding of the times and the situation at the FBI to make such a Judgement. I'd suggest we all just shut up and listen for a few days before pontificating anywhere. The subject is far too serious for quips. Woodward and Bernstien will be on Larry King tonite for those who get CNN. I don't suspect ole Larry will do nthe topic justice, but it should be an interesting hour.

FYI - I'm a 41 year old recovering NYer who well recalls watching Nixon resign and the stunned silence of my parents, grandparents and extended family who gathered to watch the event unfold. That act birthed a new world for them.