Evangelist/Watergate figure: Deep Throat has to live out his days in shame

[Bluebear]

From World Magazine: Christian Views


Chuck Colson said at first he "did not believe it" when he learned—along with the rest of the nation—the true identity of Deep Throat. The noted evangelical author, speaker, and founder of Prison Fellowship said he, like other leading Watergate figures, long discounted the presence of an inside informant feeding scoops to Washington Post reporters from an underground parking garage....

Mr. Colson does believe Mr. Felt breached professional ethics, but he was more concerned to see a top government official treated as a hero for leaking government data. "This is a guy who could have your files and mine in his trust," Mr. Colson said.

"The principle being taught today in a relativistic environment is getting young people to believe that this is a noble act that he did," he said. "He could not have done the right thing. He broke his oath of office. He broke the law. He snuck off cloak-and-dagger style to convey privileged information."...

"No, no," Mr. Colson said. "I did what I did. I take responsibility for it. Whether he contributed is irrelevant. I am not angry, I am sad, for a country that would think this is a good thing. And I am sad for a man who is 91 years old and who will have to live out his days with this hanging over him."


http://www.worldmag.com/subscriber/displayarticle.cfm?id=10714

[cornermouse]

1. Colson: Looking for other people's splinters while ignoring

his logs. And this guy is a religious LEADER?

[The Stranger]

23. But there are no splinters -- just logs -- Colson's conviction and crime.

[johnfunk]

31. A three... naah, make it four word memo to Charles Colson:

Zip it, f$#@ing felon!

[noamnety]

2. Let this be a lesson to all of you

Exposing corruption is a shameful shameful thing. The true heroes are the ones that stand by and watch silently when crimes are committed!

[Inland]

14. Or personally commit them, like Colson. nt

[izzie]

3. I think as an American I should know what my govt. is doing

These people first work for the people and not for Hoover or Bush or some one.

[ET Awful]

4. Hey Colson you sleazy bastard . . .

Sure he could have files in his posession, but it's highly doubtful that those files contain anything about me attempting to subvert the Constitution and destroy the stability of the nation by sabotaging the electoral process.

[elperromagico]

5. "He broke his oath of office." Colson is right.

Oh wait. I thought he was talking about Nixon.

Never mind.

[rooboy]

6. Thanks to Felt, a lot of innocent people went to... oh... never mind. n/t

[LaurenG]

7. Too bad Colson is shaming an entire religious community

Hypocrite, mind your own damn flock, be grateful that someone was around to stop this BS. What is it about preachers thinking they have all the answers and why do they believe that they can make statements like this? Personal feelings are one thing acting as a mouthpiece for neocons (read, evil) is a SIN IMO. Too bad there are no balls in the FBI now. It could save us a whole lot of grief.

[devinsgram]

8. My god, what f**king idiot.

Of course he did the right thing. They broke the law and they got caught. The truth always comes out, no matter what. Also. it's only a matter of time for the * crime family. They will get caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

[Cooley Hurd]

9. He acts like Felt broke the Omerta...

...which, last time I checked, doesn't apply to non-Sicilians.;)

[baldguy]

10. The criminals are criticizing the person who exposed their crimes.

Make no mistake: Charles Colson is a criminal. He doesn't have the RIGHT to pass judgment on Mark Felt.

[tx_dem41]

11. Colson must be lonely and need some company...

as he lives the rest of his life out in shame.

[area51]

12. Well...

Who care what hypocrite Upchuck Colson has to say? :evilgrin:

[Bluebear]

15. His flock do!

Actually the right-wing is seemingly in the mood to villify the whistleblower and to canonize Nixon. IOKIYAR!

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. Tell me again

How much time did Colson spend in jail for his crimes?

Good thing Jeb pardoned him or he wouldn't even be able to vote, no less run his mouth off about other people's innocence or guilt.

[Bluebear]

16. Seven. Whole. Months.

In 1974 Colson entered a plea of guilty to Watergate-related charges; although not implicated in the Watergate burglary, he voluntarily pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in the Daniel Ellsberg Case. He entered Alabama's Maxwell Prison in 1974 as a new Christian and as the first member of the Nixon administration to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges. He served seven months of a one- to three-year sentence.

http://www.demossnewspond.com/pf/presskit/colsonbio.htm

[LiberalFighter]

37. Can a governor pardon a felon prosecuted by the federal govt?

I don't think a governor can pardon anyone unless the crime was prosecuted in a state court under state laws.

If the crime was prosecuted under federal law then only the President can pardon that person. IMO


It appears so far that California and Wisconsin can only pardon those crimes prosecuted under their respective laws.


I found this

Secondly, as a result of an appropriations restriction of the U.S. Congress now imbodied in Public Law 109-Stat.468, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ("ATF"), a division of the U.S. Department of Treasury, has been ordered to expend no public funds on what used to be called the Restoration of Disabilities Program. As a result, ATF cannot currently process applications of people convicted of federal felonies for restoration of the federal firearms privilege. At least for the moment then, this apparently leaves the presidential pardon process as the exclusive avenue for a person convicted of a federal felony offense to regain both state and federal firearm privileges that were lost because of the federal or military conviction. At least one California Court of Appeals has, in the Bradford case, expressly recognized the presidential pardon as eliminating certain state disabilities of this type, such as prospective criminal liability under the California "felon with a gun" statute.

[Inland]

17. Welcome to the Bizzaro World that Bush has built.

Taking responsibility for what you did means you got caught, and that therefore you can condemn those who fucking got you caught so you had no choice BUT to take responsibility and a prison term.

[dbt]

18. The list of people who need to KISS MY ASS is out of control!

The line is already around the block twice. Now Colson and Buchanan are cutting in AGAIN! Somebody PLEASE reassure me that Haldeman and Erlichman are gone!!!

[Bluebear]

22. I love your post. nt

[MisterP]

27. Hunt and Liddy are still HERE! HAHAHAHA *evil laugh*

wanna see Hunt sweat? talk about November 1963

[Lars39]

29. LOL

Gotta remember that one! :D

[sendero]

19. Dear Mr. Colson...

.... If you can stand there and say the things you say week after week and not feel shame, I don't think Deep Throat has anything to apologize for.

[DoYouEverWonder]

20. Wouldn't a real 'christian'

tell the truth, confess his sins and beg his lord for forgiveness?

[flordehinojos]

21. o, please!

Mr. Felt, thank you for your honesty, your sense of right and wrong, and your courage for doing what was right! God Bless You! This country is indebted to you.

[Bluebear]

24. Well said. nt

[IndianaGreen]

25. Chuck Colson, the convicted felon?

He is much of a fraud as that stupid religion of his!

[Bluebear]

26. The very same. nt

[librechik]

28. When Hypocrite Colson gets to the Pearly Gates

he's gonna get kicked downstairs pretty quick. His last vision will be of W. Mark Felt sitting next to the Lord, smiling and waving.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

30. Thank you Mr. Convicted Criminal.

Now go line your pockets by fleecing the gullible, like a good crook.


:puke:

[supernova]

32. And Chuck Colson thinks he did a GOOD thing?

:wtf:

Mr. Felt's reasons at the time may have been morally ambiguous, but it turned out to be for the greater good.

Chuck Colson is simply hiding behind the false respectability he thinks that collar affords him.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

33. Colson got himself Right With Jesus.

And because of that, nothing he did matters any more. You could have been the most heinous criminal on earth, but if you get your sorry self Born Again, you automatically become so righteous that you have the right to judge the sins and misdeeds of everybody else. After all, you're saved and they're not, neener neener neener.

[funflower]

34. This is "leaking government data"???

More like blowing the whistle on criminals. Isn't that what the FBI is supposed to do?

[Jack Rabbit]

35. I'm a little disappointed with Colson over this

I often wondered if Colson's religious conversion didnt' truly change the man. For a long time, I thought it had.

I was wrong. Other than taking off his hard edge, he's still the same Chuck Colson. He's still mean-spirited and fiercely loyal to a man who misled more people than him.

[Lars39]

36. Remember Neal "I like mules"Horsely? Chuck Colsen hired him!!!

From the Southern Poverty Law Center...http://tinyurl.com/a2hqy
<snip>
Not long after beginning a 30-month federal prison sentence, Neal Horsley "surrendered to Jesus." He wrote later that he was among the first prisoners to be "furloughed to the new ministry started by Chuck Colson called Prison Fellowship."

Meeting Colson and other prominent Christian evangelicals, Horsley was enthralled. In 1979, after doing some work for Prison Fellowship, he became Colson's first southeastern regional director and served for several years before getting a Fellowship scholarship to attend seminary.<snip>