"It's common knowledge that he was a Registered Republican when he was investigating Nixon."
LOL. Woodward constantly claimed he had been a Republican to buttress his impartiality in his coup against Nixon.
He claimed to have worked for some local GOP candidate in 1965, for instance.
Woodward lives in Georgetown and is married to a writer for the New Yorker. He is the deputy manager (or whatever) at the Washington Post.
He's no Republican.
He was probably also trying to worm his way into that woman's confidence, if the incident in the movie was true. Reporters are slimy like that.
I guess reporters need "beards" too.