Woodward and Bernstein on Imus

IMUS:  So-so part of the-well, one element of...

BERNSTEIN:  But do you mean the original information, Don, or-very often, he confirmed information we had gotten elsewhere.  In fact, that was more often the case than-than original information. 

IMUS:  Well, let me give you an example.  What they’ve talked about on-all over cable television, and maybe regular television, that the information about these gaps in the-in the White House tapes, and the information that they were deliberately erased, that information came-there was only a few people, according to John Dean and others, who actually knew about these erasers, and when Felt provided you, according to your book, with the information, it was five months after he had left the FBI, and that was...

WOODWARD:  That’s exactly right, but...

IMUS:  Well, just let me finish.

WOODWARD:  ... but, you know, it’s like the old CIA people, they never leave.  And obviously he had contacts, and that was before anything came out about tape gaps or erasers. 

IMUS:  Right.

WOODWARD:  You remember the 18.5 minute gap.  And it turned out to be correct.  He had good information.  He had-I mean, remember, he was a Hoover man.  He was...

IMUS:  Well, did he have his own Deep Throat? 

(LAUGHTER)

BERNSTEIN:  You got it. 

WOODWARD:  Obviously, you know, you’re the number two and you spend all your life in the bureau. 

(CROSSTALK)

IMUS:  So he-so he must have had-there must have been a mole in the White House, right? 

WOODWARD:  No, not necessarily.  I mean, the...

BERNSTEIN:  We wish there would have been. 

WOODWARD:  Yes.  Good point. 

The FBI  has all kinds of information, as we know.  And enough of this has come out about, you know, files and data and so forth, and a lot of it’s official, a lot of it’s unofficial.  Newspaper clippings, gossip, you know, what the neighbor said and so forth, and somebody in that position has a staggering amount of data.