Yeesh!!

Every time I hear a news bit about W. Mark "Deep Throat" Felt, one singular thought keeps popping into my mind, "I wish they'd waited till he was dead." Hold on, now. I don't mean that in the Pat Buchanan/G. Gordon Liddy sort of way. I have a couple of, I think, legitimate reasons for this.

• There was always something mythological about this faceless character Deep Throat. From the name that required dancing around the subject with small children to the now-archetypal "dark meeting" in an underground parking lot. Seeing a frail, old man waving to reporters burst the bubble of one of the most mysterious figures in American History. Not that important in the grand scheme of things, I suppose, but waiting till after he was gone was always the plan.
• Now, I don't know if it would've worked out this way. SwiftBoating is rapidly becoming an art. But I also believe that the criticism would be more muted if he were dead. I suppose I underestimate the 'Licans. But even if they still went full-bore, I think that would've been dampened by the eulogizing at his passing. But I suppose I'm being naive.
• And what appears to be the cashing in by he and his family (though, in his mental state, I suspect more of the family) would not be nearly as salacious. Money taints everything. I wish it didn't. And if, after he died, his family wanted to cash in on the legacy, more power to them. But he would've been gone and spared that indignity.
  

As it was, he was a flawed character. But that shouldn't taint his legacy. I just wish the secret had held out just a little longer.