Felt fields questions on 'Larry King'

<p>Mark Felt, the 92-year-old Santa Rosa man identified as Watergate's "Deep Throat," said in an interview broadcast Tuesday that he held clandestine meetings in a shadowy parking garage but never uttered the line that became the mantra of a generation of investigative journalists.</p><p>"Did you ever say 'follow the money?'" CNN's Larry King asked in the interview, taped last month in Felt's home.</p><p>"No," said the former FBI deputy director, whose leaks to the Washington Post helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon. "I don't recall ever saying that."</p><p>The revelation was a high point in an hourlong broadcast of "Larry King Live" that included segments with Felt and commentary from family and journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.</p><p>Wearing a bright red blazer and open-collared white shirt, Felt fielded questions from King and talked briefly about his new memoir, "A G-Man's Life," co-written with family lawyer John O'Connor.</p><p>Felt appeared well, despite being hospitalized since the interview with pneumonia. He also has suffered two strokes, had two angioplasty procedures and suffered kidney failure.</p><p>He described Santa Rosa, where he lives with daughter Joan Felt, as "a real nice, modern town."</p><p>The TV crew spruced up the inside of the home with rugs and figurines. Books on shelves were in the background.</p><p>"I'm enjoying life," Felt said.</p><p>But his answers about why he helped expose one of the biggest political scandals in history were vague and included few specifics. And he sometimes seemed to be led by the questions.</p><p>"Deep Throat will be forever embellished on our minds," King observed. "You will be a famous character of the 20th and 21st centuries."</p><p>Felt responded simply: "I'll accept it."</p><p>Former Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee, who also appeared on the program, said the man Woodward once described as "one tough SOB" had become "sort of sad."</p><p>"I found myself holding my breath, hoping he wouldn't screw up," Bradlee said.</p><p>In his own Deep Throat memoir, "Secret Man," Woodward questions Felt's mental competency, and he has said he believes Felt has dementia.</p><p>Felt's condition contrasts his demeanor in the 1970s when Woodward and Bernstein hung on his every word.</p><p>Bernstein said he didn't leak, "he had to be squeezed."</p><p>"He was in control," Woodward said. "Now in this phase of his life he is not."</p><p>Still, Bernstein said Felt showed "remarkable dignity and bearing."</p><p>Felt became an overnight celebrity in May when he announced in a Vanity Fair article that he was Deep Throat.</p><p>The media packed his front lawn to meet the mystery man portrayed by actor Hal Holbrook in the 1976 film version of "All the President's Men."</p><p>In the garage scenes with Woodward, portrayed by actor Robert Redford, Felt's character tells the young reporter to "follow the money," referring to a secret slush fund controlled by the White House.</p><p>Felt said he never said it.</p><p>Pressed by King, Woodward said the line wasn't in the book, either. It was invented by a Hollywood screenwriter, he said.</p><p>But Woodward said it summarized the reporting.</p><p>King asked Felt how he could keep the secret so long. Felt said he "just maneuvered around and about."</p><p>He said he got a kick from newspaper articles speculating about the identity of Deep Throat. He kept some in a scrapbook.</p><p>Felt said he finally came forward to "bring out that part of the picture."</p><p>His book was released Monday and Copperfield's Books in Santa Rosa said about three copies have been sold so far.</p>