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People Who Need to Retire: Bob Woodward

Feb 28, 2013

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Bob Woodward: A Book Too Far. Bob Woodward, one-time investigative reporter turned stenographer to Beltway insiders, has been pushing a certifiably bogus story about how the sequester happened. Now Mr. Beltway is claiming the White House “threatened” him, when it sounds more like a suggestion that Woodward is just embarrassing himself by being such an obvious tool.

Further, Woodward seems to think that Presidents can seize dictatorial power and ignore the laws of Congress whenever they are in the mood. Obviously, he spent way too much time hanging around the Bushies. The amusing thing about this is that you can find no end of rightie “We Worship the Constitution” bloggers who agree with Woodward.

Because Obama Derangement Syndrome is about freedom.

See:

Henry Blodget, Business Insider: Oh, Please, The White House Didn’t ‘Threaten’ Bob Woodward

Dave Weigel, Slate: How to “Fact Check” Without Any Troublesome Fact-Checking

Dave Weigel, Slate: Bob Woodward Asks Why Obama Won’t Become a Dictator and Ignore Budget Control Act

Alex Pareene, Salon: Bob Woodward demands law-ignoring, mind-controlling presidential leadership

Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic: Bob Woodward Has Now Picked the Most and Least Important Fights with a POTUS

Bob Woodward is now the John McCain of journalism.

Spotlight

9 Comments

biggerbox • Feb 28, 2013 @11:10 am

Bob Woodward appears to have decided to make himself into a buffoon in the spotlight – perhaps he is angling for a job on Fox News, since I think that is the job description there.

I live on the other side of the country, and I remember when they cut the original sequester deal, it was publicly clear all the way out here. The idea was to keep talking about a mix of cuts and revenue, and to force them to make a deal, which they’d been pathetically unable to do, they put a sword over their heads, in the form of a bunch of stupid cuts they all thought they’d avoid by making a deal. So Woodward’s original “moving the goalposts” comment just seemed stupid from the get-go.

And then when you read the “threat” email, in which it’s clear Sperling is saying Woodward would regret it because he’d look stupid, not because the White House would do anything, Woodward looks even stupider.

Roger Ailes must be readying the contract as we speak.
biggerbox • Feb 28, 2013 @11:16 am

Oh, and I totally forgot that ridiculous comment about the aircraft carrier! WTF was that? Like having an aircraft carrier steaming across the Atlantic today is so vital to the continuation of the Republic that the President should violate Congress’ ‘power of the purse’?

Fox News audition is the only theory that explains all these comments.
c u n d gulag • Feb 28, 2013 @11:25 am

ZOMG!!!
Did you READ that vicious e-mail the White House sent him?

Jayzoos H. Keerist, frowning down from Heaven on his Christian followers being persecuted by Romans putting them in the gerbil’s den, I can see why Booby Woodenword sought shelter in the open sunshine of the MSM!

Why, this e-mail is exactly what an appartchik of Stalin would send, right before shipping the overnight KGB shift to knock down his door at 3am, and haul him off to a GULag, or one of Hitler’s banal bureaucrats would send, before the Gestapo came to pull him into a small windowless cell to be brutally tortured, before being sent off to starve in some Concentration Camp.

The horror.
The horror.
The horror…
joanr16 • Feb 28, 2013 @11:45 am

What Sperling actually wrote in his email to Woodward:

I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim … My apologies again for raising my voice on the call with you. Feel bad about that and truly apologize.

Bobby needs a bodyguard! Somebody yelled at him and then apologized!

For me, Woodward lost credibility long ago. He’s now several “books too far.”
Stella • Feb 28, 2013 @3:45 pm

I love this – “Woodward is now the John McCain of journalism.” That’s got to be the most gracious way to call him a WATB.

Celebrities make me so tired.
DRickard • Feb 28, 2013 @3:46 pm

Now now folks… we should be charitable and assume that old Bob is suffering the early stages of some form of dementia.
Swami • Feb 28, 2013 @4:42 pm

Looks like Bob Woodward took a crash course in the Michele Malkin school of Journalism.. Remaining Relevant 101…or, Advanced Screech Monkey Journalism in the Digital Age.

Literary Propulsion – the art of something from nothing.
joanr16 • Feb 28, 2013 @5:07 pm

Advanced Screech Monkey Journalism in the Digital Age

That would be a fun teevee show! As long as it featured actual monkeys.
Diane • Mar 1, 2013 @10:15 am

I think you are being too kind.
He is the sarah palin of journalism!