In the hurly-burly of Deep Throat coverage, there is a story about W. Mark Felt, the Watergate man of the hour, that should have been examined more vigorously but somehow got overlooked. It is a connection between Mr. Throat and a clear and present question about our democracy in 2005.

Connoisseurs of investigative journalism and its shining moment identifying a cancer on the presidency are really digging the Mark Felt story, but there is another side of his personal narrative that should give them pause. In 1980, Felt was convicted of allowing the FBI, where he was the No. 2 man, to secretly break into houses to help track down suspected radicals. Not just any radicals, but members of the Weather Underground who used bombing as a tactic. Yet this is America, and Felt and his people had no court order, no warrants to authorize agents to bust into the homes of innocent people who were friends and family of possible terrorists. These operations are called “black bag jobs.” Felt authorized them nine times during the Watergate years at homes in New York and New Jersey.

I looked into that old case and found it instructive. One notable witness at the trial was no less than former President Richard Nixon, who argued that break-ins in the name of national security are sometimes justified. What was the verdict? Felt and a colleague were found guilty of a conspiracy to violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches. The sentence was $5,000 in the case of Felt.

Despite his conviction, Felt, now age 91, has no criminal record. He was pardoned by President Reagan, who used words that sound quite modern nearly 25 years later. Felt, he said, “acted on high principle to bring an end to the terrorism that was threatening our nation.” Congress and the current President Bush would later take that sentiment and run with it. It is called the USA Patriot Act.

Among other things, the Patriot Act makes it easier to get secret permission from a secret court for secret searches. The secret court – FISA, it’s called – has a record of agreeing to just about every one of these requests in spying and foreign terror cases. And the results of a secret search can now be used for all sorts of criminal prosecutions.

If Mark “Deep Throat” Felt were running today’s FBI, it seems unlikely he ever would have needed a pardon. If he could not get the secret court to go along with his black bag jobs, he might have used another part of the Patriot Act to get a warrant, one that keeps searches secret – not forever, but for a good long while. Some call them “sneak and peek” warrants, and they can be granted for any kind of criminal case, even if they have no foreign, spying or terror connection.

Defenders of the Patriot Act say investigators cannot be hamstrung in the fight against terror and that FBI people are, by and large, good folks who can be trusted not to go over the top. But one of the things the case of Deep Throat shows is that the FBI’s ability to collect information gives those with that information colossal power. Mark Felt could expose Watergate because of the 1,500 FBI files to which he had access. It was power to instigate the removal of a sitting president.

This is something folks on the right and left of the political spectrum may now agree on: The need to keep a close eye on the power of the president and the people who work for him, including the FBI. Right now, Congress is looking at renewing parts of the Patriot Act set to expire this year. And where is that happening? No, not at a parking garage, Deep Throat-style. However, like a lot of this story, key Senate hearings into the Patriot Act are currently being held in secret.

David Brancaccio is host of the award-winning weekly newsmagazine NOW, which is broadcast on PBS.

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