Deep Throat - Friend or Foe?

One of the big news stories that broke while I was traveling (while I was in the airport in Atlanta, actually) was the revealing of former FBI man Mark Felt as the famous Watergate source Deep Throat. Almost instantly, a debate sprang up over whether what Felt did was good or bad and whether he should be regarded as a hero or villain. To be honest, I didn't give it must thought, as the only people I heard chastising Felt were ex-Nixon operatives like Pat Buchanan and Charles Colson whose opinions I wouldn't trust if my life depended on it. But more and more info has come out that cast some doubts on Felt's motives and, at the very least, make it a more complicated question. Over at Findlaw, Edward Lazarus argues that Felt should be regarded as a hero regardless of his motives. In other words, judge the act itself and not the actor. In the end, I think he's right - people do the right things for wrong reasons all the time. Given that people only ever act in selfish ways, it's really too much to ask of human beings that they do the right thing for its own sake.