Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward is protesting the White House's pushback over his criticism of how President Barack Obama and aides are handling the "sequester" issue.
The current gridlock in Washington is over the sequester, the $85 billion in automatic budget cuts that take effect Friday unless the president and congressional Republicans strike a new debt reduction deal.
Woodward's reporting led him to conclude that since the White House came up with the sequester idea, it has to "move the goal posts" in negotiations with Republicans and is making unnecessary national security decisions in response to the looming budget cuts. The sequester will affect every federal budget, from defense to education, and even the president's own staff.
"It was said very clearly, you will regret doing this," Woodward told CNN, citing an e-mail he received from "a senior person" at the White House. "I mean, it makes me very uncomfortable to have the White House telling reporters, you're going to regret doing something that you believe in."
The White House responded that "of course no threat was intended." The note suggested Woodward would regret the observation he made regarding the sequester because his observation was inaccurate.
Both Republicans and Democrats have said that if the cuts take effect, the next best chance for a resolution could come next month when the parties need to enact a new federal budget. Government funding runs out on March 27, raising the specter of a federal shutdown if they still are unable to reach a deal.
The struggle between the famed journalist and the cadre connected to the White House drew a harsh rebuke from former senior Obama adviser David Plouffe Wednesday night.
"Watching Woodward last 2 days is like imagining my [baseball] idol Mike Schmidt facing live pitching again," he tweeted. "Perfection gained once is rarely repeated."
In his column at the center of the storm, Woodward writes the White House has been deliberately disingenuous about its role in the sequester, and accused Obama of "moving the goal posts" by insisting Republicans agree to new tax revenue as part of any substitute for the sequester.
"That was not the deal he made," he said.
Woodward is regarded as America's most known investigative journalists, particularly for co-penning with Carl Bernstein, "All the President's Men," the book that illustrated how the Nixon White House was connected to the Watergate break-in, and burglarized Democratic headquarters. Their reporting would ultimately lead to the president's resignation in 1974. Woodward has covered Washington politics for over 40 years.
