To me, the latter was really his supposedly "out of the loop" Vice President, who had in my opinion carried off and, at the least, reported the details of (according to published reports of J. Edgar's memoir) the JFK assassination, which propelled him to ambassadorship to China (a pretty important dual use foreign service post, though one where he lost face when Nixon made his trip), then on to head of the RNC (where he was reportedly both - according to dueling ABC and CBS coverage the night of his actual nomination to Presidential candidacy- the first and the last of Nixon's loyalists to deny him first as Deep Throat and then as RNC chair). Then, with his handpicked Ford as the new King, he ran the world from the directorship of the CIA, but let him fall to Carter, assuming he would be the next Republican nominee.

It really must have shocked him when those who backed him reminded him that all he had done for the Party had been done Skull & Bones style, sub Rosa, and he had to wait through the Reagan terms for his shot. Come to think of it, that may explain reports that Neil Bush had lunch with the Hinckleys that day in March. Didn't work out as he hoped, I'd guess.

O.K., I'm in a Branford nursing home with a broken hip this week and I missed last week entirely. I'll catch a podcast when I'm back at home.

As you know, I do not buy Mark Felt's "plausible culpability" any more than Reagan's plausible deniability. I still remember Phil Hartman's wonderful takes on Reagan on SNL, where he would careen between the doddering persona one minute for a photo op with, say, a scout troop and then turn into a hard driving exec making phone calls to world markets until past dawn.

That last comment by Brooke sums it up!