MADER'S 'BRANTS Deep Throat chokes. The French swallow. And they both swap spit. June 3, 2005 - So after 30 years the identity of Deep Throat, the man that helped build the case in the Watergate scandal, finally is known. His name is Mark Felt and back in the 70’s he was the number 2 guy at the FBI. Annoyed with Nixon for anyone of a number of reasons, he helped Woodward and Bernstein by playing an elaborate game of hot water/cold water in a parking garage thus letting the valiant reporters know if they were headed in the right direction. Now lots of folk will debate if he is a hero or a villain for years to come. Personally I think it’s a mixed bag. While he helped bring to light what was a fundamental breach of the Constitution he did it in half measures. He could have provided infinite detail on a myriad of topics but instead he just provided obscure generalizations that Woodard and crew had to then interpret. Secondly if he truly felt that the world was falling apart because of Nixon he could have had the courage and ethical cahoonies to walk up to Capitol Hill and testify in front of Congress. Instead he lurked in the shadows and just manipulated the events around him instead of being a man and taking the heat by publicly sticking his name on his accusations. In retrospect, his personality profile fits that same mould as people we all know in our day-to-day life. They are petty and back biting and while occasionally they accidentally do a good thing most of the time their actions just cause chaos. Think of him as the office gossip or the jilted ex that just keeps dogging you to other potential mates. And in the end what did Watergate accomplish? Not a whole lot really. Oh sure people from that generation that lack objectivity will say that it was a great victory for American democracy, but was it really? Nixon getting nailed didn’t prevent future Presidents from doing dumb things like Iran Contra under Reagan or just being out-and-out felons in office like Clinton. No. In fact Watergate, like the scandals that followed, just distracted a nation and it’s government from doing the peoples work. Nixon was tainted by the scandal before he left office making him ineffective and when he was replaced, Ford couldn’t do much better because he, while a nice guy, was a lame duck. In short, the government stopped functioning and things happened like the movement in Europe for a common currency gaining speed. Oversimplified by a lot but see told ya there was connection. Keep reading. The French this week failed to ratify the constitution of the EU. Poor planning on the EU’s part, they set a rule that stated that all members must agree to the document or the whole thing collapses. A better plan would have been that only nations that agreed to the constitution could be part of the Union. As a result it looks as if there may be no EU at all. Bad for the Europeans, good for us. Ya see if the EU could actually get its act together they would form the most powerful nation on earth economically thus breaking Americas hegemony in the global market place. God that sounds so cool. I read that recently in a doctorial thesis. I just love it….hegemony…ya just gotta love ancient Greek. I digress. The simple fact is that Americas role as the planets super power is ticking away. When you consider natural resources, education, population and just the natural march of history at some point the U.S. will be surpassed by somebody, nothing lasts forever. If the EU had been able to get it’s act together we probably would have slipped to number two or three in the next forty years. Instead, thanks to the French, we probably have closer to one hundred years. By that time, either India or China or the Latin countries will be kicking our collective butts. So how’s this tie in? Well in very general terms. If Nixon had been able to be more effective as a president in his second term we may never have even heard the word European Union in the same sentence. But thanks to the French doing what they do best the past 30 years of history may be irrelevant anyway. Later, Mader