Perhaps the only really interesting thing about Bob Woodward’s return to temporary Beltway celebrity is the ambivalence of conservatives about accepting this particular convert to their war-tents. A lot of them haven’t forgiven him for his original role in Watergate, or his conspicuous embodiment of the Liberal Media As Folk Heroes meme afterwards. Some are actually embarrassed by the particulars of his current conflict with the White House, and his slippery characterization of unctuous emails from Gene Sperling as intimidating, in a way clearly intended to compare Obama’s White House to Nixon’s.
But there’s one group of conservative gabbers who have a particular motive for embracing Woodward: former liberals who find his sudden presence in their ranks as proof positive that Obama represents a Democratic Party which has lurched insanely to the left, making their own apostasy a badge of honor rather than shame.
So naturally, here’s Pat Caddell with a piece for the Fox News web page entitled: “Obama is the closest thing to Nixon we’ve seen in 40 years.” Gaze in awe:
In my lifetime, in over 40 years in national politics, Mr. Obama is the only president who comes close to rivaling Richard Nixon for fundamental disingenuousness.
However, some things never change, just as Woodward and Bernstein were attacked then by the establishment mainstream media for daring to question a president — or do a story that they wouldn’t touch — they are once again attacking Woodward the way they did when he and Carl Bernstein pursed Watergate.
Watch how quickly Caddell makes this about himself:
As the youngest person on Nixon’s enemies list in 1972, I am particularly sensitive to a White House where they have utter disregard for trampling on dissent and on the rights of individuals.
And then pivots to the issue Woodward is not writing about: Benghazi! Benghazi!
Since Benghazi, when I raised the alarm about a media that was not only willing to blatantly support one political party or one political a candidate but for the first time seemed willing to suppress or ignore the facts and truth as related to a disaster of American foreign policy, my fear has been that we are now on a slippery slope. Almost everything since then has helped to realize that fear. Chuck Hagel, the sequester, Mr. Obama’s speeches — all of these have revealed a mainstream press that has absolutely decided to wear its bias openly as outriders of the Obama administration….
What this Woodward, White House sequester battle highlights is the crisis in our democracy. Not so much for what it says about Mr. Obama and his administration but for what it says about the establishment press and all the members of my own party.
Yes, Caddell is the only True Democrat. All those tens of millions of other Democrats are the heretics, not he. So while he’s pleased Woodward has given him a rare opportunity to remind people he was once someone who didn’t make his living providing “bipartisan” cover for some of the more psychotic right-wing perspectives, he needs more:
As much as I have always admired Bob Woodward and admire now him in the sequester fight and for his willingness to take on the White House, I cannot refrain from expressing my disappointment that this man, who did such a service for the country 40 years ago, has essentially taken himself off the boards of the Benghazi fiasco. I wish that if Woodward were to get in a fight, he would do it on an issue that really matters to the safety of the United States.
C’mon into the fever swamps, Bob! The water’s fine!
