by Matt Barr

Was Rehnquist Deep Throat?

Keith Olbermann, no doubt thankful that something is finally happening in the world so he can lay off Focus on the Family, is all over the story about Watergate's Deep Throat being ill and, depending on through whom you heard about it, near death. Bob Woodward and Ben Bradlee promised not to reveal Deep Throat's identity till he died.

Olbermann, on his blog, at least, doesn't speculate that it might be Chief Justice Rehnquist, but a Kevin McCarthy does, as reported on D Magazine's Front Burner:

[W]e have Rehnquist in Washington throughout the relevant time frame, in the Nixon Justice Dept. for three years, presumably maintaining numerous contacts within the Administration even after he went to the Court in January '72, and he's quite ill right now. Seven of the eight clandestine meetings Woodward describes between himself & Deep Throat in the book "All The President's Men" took place on weekends, presumably a time when Rehnquist's duties to the Court would not interfere. Not only that, but the somewhat cryptic, elliptical, low-key style of speaking that Woodward attributes to Deep Throat in the book (and so memorably recreated in the movie by Hal Holbrook) eerily mirrors the manner in which Rehnquist speaks in real life.

Woodward, incidentally, had unprecedented access to the Supreme Court for his best-selling 1975 book, "The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court[.]"

Brain Shavings reminds us that Rehnquist recused himself from the 8-0 U.S. v. Nixon case that ordered the President to turn over his tapes. Everyone assumed it was because Mr. Justice Rehnquist was a Nixon appointee and had worked in his Office of Legal Counsel.

TheCorrection.org has a useful roundup of other "candidates," including the first President Bush. Gay Orbit notes a feature of the Deep-Throat-is-ill story that points away from the Chief.

For my part, I note that a life-tenured judge would be, of all those mentioned as possiblities, the most free to pass information to the press about illegal goings-on in the White House. Free of fear for their political careers, I mean. However, the Chief is an ethical jurist and keen legal mind, and would be mindful that if he knew about crimes committed by his "client," the White House, he would be obligated to report them to the police, not the Washington Post.

We'll see.

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