Bob Woodward, who famously reported the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of Richard Nixon, is continuing to report that Obama is to blame for the implementation of the sequester— he says that the sequester is “the “brain child” of the White House” and “Obama personally approved of the plan.” The White House has “pushed back” against Bob Woodward on Twitter– a move that Obama already regrets.

Now, Bob Woodward’s pride is taking front center stage, and he’s “ripped into President Barack Obama… for a decision not to deploy an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf because of budget concerns. “Can you imagine Ronald Reagan sitting there and saying, ‘Oh, by the way, I can’t do this because of some budget document?'” Woodward said.  “Or George W. Bush saying, ‘You know, I’m not going to invade Iraq because I can’t get the aircraft carriers I need?'” Or even Bill Clinton saying, ‘You know, I’m not going to attack Saddam Hussein’s intelligence headquarters,’ … because of some budget document?”… “Under the Constitution, the President is commander-in-chief and employs the force. And so we now have the President going out because of this piece of paper and this agreement. ‘I can’t do what I need to do to protect the country,'” Woodward said. “That’s a kind of madness that I haven’t seen in a long time,” he said.”

Update: Wow, this really is war! Bob Woodward told CNN that a “very senior person” at the White House warned him in an email that he would “regret doing this.”

Update #2: Fox News made a very interesting point about Woodward’s response: “There was something very quaint about Bob Woodward’s concern about the attacks he’s been receiving from the Obama White House. Here’s what Woodward told Politico: “I think if Obama himself saw the way they’re dealing with some of this, he would say, ‘Whoa, we don’t tell any reporter ‘you’re going to regret challenging us.’ ” Woodward assumes that if only President Obama knew about the nastygrams and threats and attacks from his team the president would step in and rein in his over-eager staffers. If only Obama knew! Woodward, once celebrated by Democrats for yanking down Richard Nixon’s imperial presidency, now seems puzzled by the doings of the current and even more imperial Obama presidency.”  Obama is responsible for his own administration, but Woodward– perhaps out of fear of being labeled a racist for criticizing ‘the first African-American President’?– continues to make excuses for Obama, and is reluctant to place blame on Obama directly. Every action of the Obama Administration is attributable to Obama directly– he is directly responsible for those to whom he delegates authority, and he’s responsible for knowing what’s going on: this is a legal principle.

Update #3: It’s now been revealed that “A day after Woodward’s claim that a senior White House official had told him he would “regret” writing a column criticizing President Obama’s stance on the sequester, Lanny Davis, a longtime close advisor to President Bill Clinton, told WMAL’s Mornings on the Mall Thursday he had received similar threats for newspaper columns he had written about Obama in the Washington Times.” 

Davis told WMAL that his editor, John Solomon, “received a phone call from a senior Obama White House official who didn’t like some of my columns, even though I’m a supporter of Obama. I couldn’t imagine why this call was made.”  Davis says the Obama aide told Solomon, “that if he continued to run my columns, he would lose, or his reporters would lose their White House credentials.”… “I called three senior people at the White House, and I said, ‘I want this person to be told this can never happen again, and it’s inappropriate.’  I got a call back from someone who was in the White House saying it will never happen again.””

Obama’s thuggery is completely out of control. Journalist Ron Fournier has now come forward with the same story: 

Fournier says: “I had angered the White House, particularly a senior White House official who I am unable to identify because I promised the person anonymity… The official angered by my Woodward tweet sent me an indignant e-mail. “What’s next, a Nazi analogy?” the official wrote, chastising me for spreading “bull**** like that” I was not offended by the note, mild in comparison to past exchanges with this official. But it was the last straw in a relationship that had deteriorated… I received several e-mails and telephone calls from this White House official filled with vulgarity, abusive language, and virtually the same phrase that Politico characterized as a veiled threat.”

Obama’s strategy is beyond the obvious:

• Attempt to de-legitimize and silence news organizations (such as Fox News) that hold Obama accountable for his actions and broadcast both supporting and opposing viewpoints on the Obama Administration.
• Monitor journalists to ensure they are in line with Obama’s agenda.
• Refuse to answer journalists’ questions, and pre-package journalists’ questions.
• Get angry at local reporters who ask tough questions.
• Lanny Davis and Bob Woodward are proof that Obama gets angry at national reporters who ask tough questions too, even if they’re liberal!