Gray. And Getting Grayer.

(Props to Monty)

L. Patrick Gray III, the chief snoop who couldn’t find the biggest mole in U.S. history in the office next to him, has died at the age of 88. After the death of FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, Nixon appointed Gray, a little-known and ill-qualified crony, as his successor. Gray had the good fortune of taking office during one of the worst scandals in White House history, aided in part by snubbed number 2 man W. Mark Felt, who was giving the inside scoop to The Washington Post as Deep Throat. Whether Felt would have been as accommodating had he been chosen as the head of the FBI is the next chapter of the Deep Throat debate, but Gray greased the slide for Nixon with his rather curious way of handling sensitive documents. Gray admitted to Congress that he had shared documents related to the Watergate investigation with White House counsel John Dean, and was then allowed to “twist slowly, slowly in the wind” before resigning. Gray largely remained silent over his role in the Watergate scandal for the next 30 years before Felt’s emergence as Deep Throat opened the door for him to admit that his role in the cover-up was the second biggest mistake of his life. The biggest was going to work for Richard Nixon in the first place.