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Exclusive: The Woodward, Sperling emails revealed
Politico ^

Posted on 02/28/2013 7:59:15 AM PST by Sub-Driver

Exclusive: The Woodward, Sperling emails revealed By: Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei February 28, 2013 08:30 AM EST

POLITICO’s “Behind the Curtain” column last night quoted Bob Woodward as saying that a senior White House official has told him in an email he would “regret” questioning White House statements on the origins of sequestration. The official in question is Gene Sperling, economic adviser to the president. The White House has since pushed back, saying the exchange was far more innocuous than Woodward claims.

We have obtained, exclusively, the exchange. Here it is:

From Gene Sperling to Bob Woodward on Feb. 22, 2013

Bob:

I apologize for raising my voice in our conversation today. My bad. I do understand your problems with a couple of our statements in the fall — but feel on the other hand that you focus on a few specific trees that gives a very wrong perception of the forest. But perhaps we will just not see eye to eye here.

But I do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying saying that Potus asking for revenues is moving the goal post. I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim. The idea that the sequester was to force both sides to go back to try at a big or grand barain with a mix of entitlements and revenues...

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bobwoodward; bobwoodword; genesperling; obama; partisanmediashills; sequester; whabuse; whmediarelations; woodward
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To: Sub-Driver

[...you should rethink your comment...]

No one on the left ever had a problem with his ‘thought process’ when he wrote “All the Presidents Men” but when he scratches their thin skin he becomes a pariah.

Woodward is no fool, their innocuous statement to him really ended...or else.


21 posted on 02/28/2013 8:52:51 AM PST by RetSignman ("...a Republic if you can keep it")
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To: HenryArmitage

Woodward is an opportunist. But if this round of publicity seeking results in a wider perception of this administration as the punks and gangsters they are, I’ll take it.


22 posted on 02/28/2013 9:00:24 AM PST by skeeter
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To: Sub-Driver

Woodward’s response is obsequious dreck.


23 posted on 02/28/2013 9:09:00 AM PST by Paladin2
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To: reagandemocrat
Since there seems to be a clear pattern of threats and intimidation to the media, including the usual lapdogs that have failed to show enough comradely enthusiasm for Mr. Obama, an investigation by the House of Representatives is clearly needed.
It might be best to form a Special Committee to Investigate the Administration of President Obama.
email expose.
Sperling: Woody, you @$#@#$%%, @#^$&& you, your dog, your newspaper and the horse you rode in on.
Woodward: I'm sorry, can't we be friends?

TWB

24 posted on 02/28/2013 9:19:16 AM PST by TWhiteBear (Sarah Palin...The Flame of the North)
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To: Sub-Driver
Woodward said he would call Sperling after 3 pm.

My guess he did and got another abusive earful which is why he decided to go public.

25 posted on 02/28/2013 10:01:03 AM PST by what's up
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To: Cicero

keyboard spew alert


26 posted on 02/28/2013 10:15:28 AM PST by SteveH (First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.)
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To: Sub-Driver

The emails aren’t the story. The alleged threats aren’t the story.

The real story is the reflexive way the media leaped to attack the heretic, before even waiting for any facts to really come out. Even if that heretic is a journalistic legend whom most of them would have fallen over themselves praising a week earlier.

It’s far more frightening that the media’s gut instinct is to defend the White House at all costs than some admin flunkie was trying to bully a reporter.


27 posted on 02/28/2013 10:16:24 AM PST by kevkrom (If a wise man has an argument with a foolish man, the fool only rages or laughs...)
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To: Sub-Driver

My cynical mind is reading this kerfuffle as nothing more than the White House and their sycophants in the SRM creating a big nothing burger to divert attention away from other, more serious issues, such as the release of criminal illegal aliens from federal custody.


28 posted on 02/28/2013 10:18:29 AM PST by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: kevkrom

+1


29 posted on 02/28/2013 10:19:38 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (Nothing will change until after the war.)
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To: kevkrom

DING! DING! DING!

We have a winner!


30 posted on 02/28/2013 10:23:45 AM PST by jonno (Having an opinion is not the same as having the answer...)
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To: Sub-Driver

So where are all those like an AF Four Star who a few decades ago stopped at an Air National Guard Base after they’d just crashed on of the first airplanes that went directly from the manufacture to the ANG Wing? After the accident briefing and before boarding his airplane to go back to Langley AFB, VA, he called the Wing Commander aside and quietly said, “You Son-Of-A-Bitch, if you lose another airplane I’m going to come to your house and burn it down...with your wife and kids inside”.


31 posted on 02/28/2013 10:39:10 AM PST by Portcall24
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To: SomeCallMeTim

Whoops! Premature denial by the most transparent Administration.


32 posted on 02/28/2013 10:39:55 AM PST by popdonnelly (The right to self-defense is older than the Constitution.)
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To: reagandemocrat

“Who writes page-long emails after screaming on the phone for half an hour?”

Somebody who’s afraid. He’s probably just doing what the Oval Office told him to do.


33 posted on 02/28/2013 10:42:20 AM PST by popdonnelly (The right to self-defense is older than the Constitution.)
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To: kevkrom

Also worth emphasizing is the fact that the White House got caught lying about the sequester.


34 posted on 02/28/2013 10:48:09 AM PST by Hoodat ("As for God, His way is perfect" - Psalm 18:30)
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To: kevkrom

Another thing that galls me is the way Woodward called Sperling in advance of the story’s publication. Why? He wasn’t looking for a comment for the story, he was calling to warn them.

Did he do that with Nixon? Did Dan Rather do that with Bush in the 2004 TANG “fake but accurate” story? Did the National Enquirer do that with Clinton?

No! It’s supposed to be a surprise, a heads-up on a story like this is unethical because it allows the subject to set the spin in advance.


35 posted on 02/28/2013 10:51:44 AM PST by Cyber Liberty (I am a dissident. Will you join me? My name is John....)
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To: popdonnelly
Whoops! Premature denial

LOL! You know, as often as they "Deny" things, you'd think they wouldn't have such a problem... and yet?

36 posted on 02/28/2013 11:47:07 AM PST by SomeCallMeTim ( The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them)
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To: Sacajaweau

“Apology for raising their voice is something a female might do...”

Why would the woman apologize, when it was clearly your fault she had to raise her voice. Always.


37 posted on 02/28/2013 2:20:54 PM PST by USFRIENDINVICTORIA
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To: Sub-Driver

Funny how Mike Allen suddenly ended up with the original email...


38 posted on 02/28/2013 3:57:32 PM PST by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: Cyber Liberty

Usually they do call to ask for comment, and I believe they did in those cases too.


39 posted on 02/28/2013 5:33:29 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: piasa

Not in this case. Asking for comment is to get a quote for the story, and this story was already put to bed...no comment for the story because it’s post-deadline. Maybe for a follow up story, I don’t know.

But I get a bad feeling in my gut about Woodward’s call to Sperling. And the follow up email. And especially Woodward’s reply to the email.


40 posted on 02/28/2013 5:40:04 PM PST by Cyber Liberty (I am a dissident. Will you join me? My name is John....)
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