Bob Woodward

W. Mark Felt, 95 'Deep Throat' source W. Mark Felt, the FBI official who as the anonymous journalists' source "Deep Throat" helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon, died yesterday at his home in Santa Rosa, Calif. He was 95. Felt had congestive heart failure but the immediate cause of death was not known last night. "He was an important person for the history of our nation, but also such a gem and such a treasure to our family," said his grandson Nick Jones, who confirmed the death.

"Twenty-nine children dead. Two reporters searching for the truth ... no matter where it takes them. Based on actual events." That's the promotional campaign Showtime is running for the film, "Who Killed Atlanta's Children?" which premieres tomorrow night on the premium cable channel. Don't fall for the hype. "Who Killed Atlanta's Children?" - with Gregory Hines and James Belushi - seems far more concerned with glorifying a pair of reporters for Spin magazine than it does in communicating the horror of the deaths of 29 African-American children between 1979 and 1982, or actually presenting hard evidence that the man convicted in the murders was not the killer.

JUST a little over a year ago, Roger Altman, deputy secretary of the Treasury, was at the top of the world.He had been tapped by the Clinton White House to take charge of the "war room" organized for a giant push for passage of the president's landmark deficit-reduction economic plan. After the measure passed by only one vote in the House and the Senate, relieved White House staffers had a party to celebrate and praise Mr. AltmanThat was August 1993. August 1994 brought his resignation because of his misleading testimony before Congress on the Whitewater affair.

G. Gordon Liddy, Watergate's macho cowboy who refused to testify during the scandal nearly 30 years ago to protect his superiors, took the stand yesterday in a style befitting his new public role - tell-all talk-radio host. Defending himself in a $5.1 million defamation case, the 70-year-old Watergate conspirator went on the charm offensive. He regaled jurors and a courtroom full of curious onlookers with his firsthand account of history and a steady stream of one-liners. Liddy at times became so animated as he testified about the events from 28 years ago that his attorney and U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz sometimes cut him off because he had strayed off course.

I used to think of Vice President Joseph Biden as a nice guy. Good old Joe. Down-to-earth, nice sense of humor, great family man. But last year I read the Bob Woodward book on "Obama's Wars. " His account of Mr. Biden's meeting with Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai in January 2009, was a shocker. Mr. Biden was rude and arrogant, humiliating the Afghan leader before his own cabinet ministers. He also complained about Mr. Karzai's public protest over civilian casualties from American bombing in his country.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said yesterday that he was appointing Gen. Colin L. Powell to a second two-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, dismissing speculation that he was unhappy with his top military adviser, who initially advocated a go-slow policy in the Persian Gulf.Mr. Bush's reappointment of General Powell, while not surprising, also underscored the president's intention to keep Vice President Dan Quayle on the ticket in 1992.The new term would begin Oct. 1 and is subject to Senate confirmation.

This month, Amazon rolled out the second-generation Kindle, whose new features include a voice "reading" the work. About the same time, media futurist Jeff Jarvis announced that his new book, What Would Google Do?, could be purchased in a 23-minute video version - perfect for a busy executive's morning treadmill workout. What's next? Reading Moby Dick on your cell phone? Actually, that's already available. Clearly, the definition of a "book" is changing. Whether or not you're a fan of the latest technology, you'll have to come to terms with this new world.

Suddenly 9/11 is back on people's minds. Bill Clinton let Chris Wallace of Fox News feel his pain last month over accusations that he hadn't done enough to chase down al-Qaida. Now comes a book by Bob Woodward that discusses a previously unremarked-upon meeting between George J. Tenet, then CIA director, and Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser, on July 10, 2001, at which Mr. Tenet reportedly warned her that an attack was imminent. Ms. Rice's first response was to say she had no specific memory of such a meeting.

WASHINGTON -- Gen. James L. Jones, once the U.S. Marine Corps top officer who now is NATO's supreme commander, acknowledged yesterday that he had expressed concerns about the diminished role of the military's uniformed leadership to Gen. Peter Pace just before Pace rose to the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as reported in a new book. But Jones insisted that the concerns he expressed focused more on the legal structure of the Pentagon's upper echelons than on personalities. In State of Denial, by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, Jones is quoted as telling Pace that the Joint Chiefs - the top uniformed officers of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines - had improperly "surrendered" authority to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Robert E. Rubin, chairman of the National Economic Council, was much too quick in denying that Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan has been "a senior adviser, almost a teacher to [President] Clinton" -- a description appearing in a new book by journalist Bob Woodward of Watergate fame. In asserting that the president "relates to Alan Greenspan the way he relates to" other economic policy advisers, Mr. Rubin turned the usual White House spin into quite a stretch.The fact is that no president relates to the Fed chairman of the moment as though he were just another adviser.