Reading Bob Woodward

One day he ran into Mark Felt, who was waiting there as well.

The story of how he latched on to Felt, which Woodward also told in The Post when Felt's role as Deep Throat was made public by the source's family, is remarkably revealing. Woodward describes himself as "needy," full of "anxiety, even consternation" about his future. He describes the FBI man as having "a great, confident voice" and "a command presence." The older man "showed no interest in striking up a long conversation," but Woodward was "almost drooling" to have one.

So he did.

He established common ground with Felt (both had done graduate work at George Washington University; both had worked for congressmen). He shared his ambitions and asked for career advice. "I remember trying to probe by talking about myself," he writes -- noting that by the end of their encounter, "I had set the hook."

What he means is that he had connected with someone who could advise him about his future. But in hindsight it is obvious that he already possessed an essential attribute of the hard-driving reporter: the ability to quickly forge relationships with people who can help you.

Felt's first job out of law school had been with the Federal Trade Commission, a job he hated because the work was slow and bureaucratic. "Go with the action," he told Woodward. Not long afterward, Woodward decided to abandon the idea of law school, along with various other career possibilities, and try for a job at The Post.

He talked his way into a two-week tryout, failed it, took a $115-a-week job at the Montgomery County Sentinel and was told "you're crazy" by his father. By September 1971, he had worked his way back to this newspaper, where he put in so many extra hours that he drew both complaints from the union and approving notice from Post publisher-to-be Donald Graham.

On the morning of June 17, 1972, the city editor woke him up with a phone call. There'd been a peculiar little burglary at the Watergate, he said.

'Pushing Hard'

A few years ago, I interviewed Woodward for a magazine story on the investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. The two are often portrayed as bitter rivals, but Woodward expressed appreciation for Hersh's accomplishments. "What Sy is, he's one of the shock troops," he said. "He's the one who goes in first." As such, "he is going to get bloodied."

He might as well have been talking about himself and Carl Bernstein in the early days of the Watergate story. They were in first; they were alone for a long time; and they got bloodied -- both by the Nixon administration and by fellow journalists who didn't believe their reporting.

They'd have been bloodied far more if Woodward hadn't set his hook in Felt two years before.

Deep Throat's side of the relationship -- the porn-movie nickname came from a Post editor -- is difficult to pin down. Woodward does his best to weigh his likely reasons for becoming a secret source, but because Felt has lost much of his memory in recent years, his true motivation may never be known.