The Insider.

It’s impossible to exaggerate how high the stakes were in Watergate…From the start, it was clear that senior administration officials were up to their necks in this mess and would stop at nothing to sabotage our investigation…What we needed was a ‘Lone Ranger’ who could bypass the administration’s hand-picked FBI director and Justice Department leadership and derail the White House cover-up.W. Mark Felt, a.k.a. Deep Throat, 1913-2008.

Throat Cleared.

As suspected by several journalists and at the ripe young age of 91, Deep Throat reveals himself to Vanity Fair as W. Mark Felt, the FBI’s #2 man during Watergate. “‘I don’t think (being Deep Throat) was anything to be proud of,’ Felt indicated to his son, Mark Jr., at one point, according to the article. ‘You (should) not leak information to anyone.’Update: With great hullabaloo, the Post confirms. Update 2: Nixon weighs in, as do Slate‘s Tim Noah (multiple times) and David Greenberg.