Vanity Fair has identified Deep Throat: The 91-year-old W. Mark Felt, who during Watergate was the #2 man at the FBI. Felt has been a regular on the short list of potential candidates, and was known to be friendly to reporters.

The news that Felt might be the source was originally broken a long time ago by Carl Bernstein's son supposedly, and Ronald Kessler's book, "The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI by Ronald Kessler," argued that it was Felt, as did a 1992 Atlantic Monthly article by James Mann (sub. req.).

Here is Washingtonian's 2002 thinking on why Deep Throat was Felt. As early as 1974, Felt denied Deep Throat to Washingtonian, saying "It was not I, and it is not I." (Of course, perhaps his bad grammar was his wiggle room.)

And a while back, Slate wondered why Woodward and Felt would have lunch together.

Further evidence to support Felt is that according to today's news reports, he's in ill health and rumors earlier this spring that Deep Throat was ailing.

12:10 P.M. UPDATE: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein have both released statements saying they won't comment on the new Vanity Fair article, saying they won't comment until Deep Throat dies.

12:24 P.M. UPDATE: Wikipedia already has the update.