Nixon's Echoes

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"Well, I never knew if Nixon thought Hoover had something on him in all those files or not. It was always clear that Hoover would die with his boots on," said Safire, who left his post as a White House speechwriter in 1973 and later denounced Watergate in a book.

Sooner is always better than later in my business. But the disclosure of Deep Throat's identity and its renewed validation of the judicious, monitored use of anonymous sources by news gatherers comes at an auspicious time for journalism and for the nation.

Like a five o'clock shadow, a stubble of the vindictiveness and abuse of power that marked the Nixon era sprouts again as national security fears dominate the political landscape.

You can see that stubble growing in the nonsensical federal prosecution by Patrick Fitzgerald of the New York Times' Judith Miller and Time's Matthew Cooper for shielding sources in the Valerie Plame case. And the FBI's attempts

to break and then use Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin in national security sting operations look to be truly Nixonian in character and method.

There is a difference in the context of such excesses. President Bush does not have the same baggage or temperament that Nixon brought to the White House. But neither does Bush do enough to counter the demagogic assaults on the independence of the judiciary -- without which the Watergate conspiracy would not have been broken -- or to spotlight and punish abuse of power when it occurs in his administration.

To end on a personal note, the Deep Throat retrospective season would not be complete without a mention of the finest of the many fine examples of leadership that Ben Bradlee has given at The Post over the years.

Many of us have probably begun to forget some of the details of the scandal, which broke while I was overseas for The Post. But I still remember Bradlee's first orders to the news staff as the big Watergate heads started to roll.

"Don't gloat," this brilliant editor instantly ordered. "Do not gloat." And so not even my mother -- whom I happened to be visiting and who happened to be weeping at the news -- ever saw a smile cross my face on Aug. 9, 1974, the day that Nixon quit.

jimhoagland@washpost.com

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