Now that the we know the identity of “Deep Throat,” the secret Washington Post source that helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon during the Watergate scandal of 30 years ago, the fun begins.

With the announcement by 91-year-old W. Mark Felt, once the No. 2 guy at the FBI, that “I’m the guy they used to call ‘Deep Throat,'” the chattering classes on the cable television networks began debating whether Felt was hero or lawbreaker. If past performances are any indication, they will continue to do so until the cows come home. Or until some scent of new scandal sends the pack baying off in another direction.

It comes as no great surprise that on the cablevision shout shows liberals tend to think Felt is a patriot while conservatives view him as a scoundrel. The multitudes in between the two extremes, supposing they are old enough to remember the Watergate affair, seem likely to believe he may be a little of each.

Felt’s family’s public relations campaign to make him out a hero didn’t get off to the greatest of starts when a daughter expressed the hope that there was big money to be made off the deal.

Just how wasn’t immediately clear. Felt, said to be in poor mental and physical health because of a stroke, allegedly remembers that he was Deep Throat, but has forgotten many of the details. When the author can’t remember the plot, that would seem to pretty much queer any book deal, right there. And the movie has already been done, thank you very much. Plus, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, who, with stable mate Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate story, has a book about Deep Throat waiting in the wings for the day when he would be free of his pledge of secrecy to Felt.

Perhaps Felt made detailed notes of his escapades when he was in a more lucid state of mind, with an eye toward one day cashing in with the help of a literary agent. His advice to Woodward 30 years ago was “follow the money.” His family’s advice to him today is “chase the money.”

G. Gordon Liddy – a Nixon associate who went to jail for his role in the Watergate affair – said on the Fox Network that Felt is a “pathetic old man” who, if interested in pursuing his sworn duty to uphold the law, would have gone to a grand jury with his information, rather than blabbing to The Washington Post.

One of the convicted burglars who broke into Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex at the behest of the Nixon campaign apparatus in the early morning hours of June 17, 1972 has called Felt a “traitor.”

That characterization cannot possibly be a good thing to have on one’s resume, even though it comes from a bungling burglar. Nor, for that matter, would the notation that Felt on several occasions had – to put it delicately – lied about being the Post’s main informant.

In telling the Hartford Courant in 1999 that he wasn’t Deep Throat, Felt boasted, “I would have done better. I would have been more effective…” In 1974, according to The Associated Press, he threatened to sue one magazine for naming him as the likely secret source. And now the man is suddenly Mr. Deep Throat? In some places – Washington, D.C., obviously not one of them – such behavior might be considered wanting to have things both ways.

How did The Washington Post dare disregard the constant denials of the president of the United States, his attorney general and top aides, and stand by Woodward, Bernstein and Deep Throat?

Well, duh. W. Mark Felt was an investigative reporter’s dream come true. When your main source is second in command of the FBI – the guy who knows where all the skeletons are buried and can steer you safely through the cemetery’s protective minefield – you tend to be confident that your story can withstand any storm it may spawn.

On the other hand, if your unimpeachable source has a huge ax to grind, as Felt may have had after he was passed over by Nixon to head the FBI upon the death of J. Edgar Hoover, you had best proceed with caution.

For the reporter, the rule in such situations is “trust, but verify,” preferably twice. For the editor, the trick lies in weighing one scenario against the other and having the guts to make the call. For the publisher, the worry is always that the call, made under pressure of deadline, may result in a wrong number.

NEWS columnist Kent Ward lives in Winterport. His e-mail address is olddawg@bangordailynews.net