Here's the whole "Meet the Press" transcript. Here's the part about Bob Woodward:
DAVID GREGORY: Here was an e-mail from you to Bob Woodward that was released. In it: "I do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying that the president asking for revenues is moving the goalpost. I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim." When you said "you will regret staking out that claim," what did you mean?Later in the show, Gregory asked Tom Brokaw to opine on the Woodward/Sperling "threat" question, and he said:
GENE SPERLING: I meant that, while the first issue of whose idea it was, the sequester, was one I disagreed with him on but I could see how honorable people could disagree. I was trying to explain to him, from a substantive point of view, that the idea that the president of the United States was moving the goalpost by asking for the type of balance of tax reform that raised revenues, that the Speaker Boehner himself, as you noted, had called for, as well as long-term entitlements, together, to get rid of the sequester, was not only not moving the goalpost: That was the whole idea of the sequester. And I think that e-mail was cordial. It was substantive. It was polite.
DAVID GREGORY: But you say, "You're going to regret it." I mean, does the president think that's a good idea to say to reporters, to challenge them that, "You're going to regret staking out that claim"?
GENE SPERLING: Well, David, I've had 20-year relationship with Bob Woodward. It's been friendly, it's been cordial. Those e-mails are very substantive. They're cordial, they're friendly. And his reply to me--
DAVID GREGORY: Why do you think he's gone public with it and made an issue of it?
GENE SPERLING: Well, David, I guess I'd ask people to look at his reply. His reply said, "Gene, you don't need to apologize." He said he welcomed my advice. So I can't really explain it. All I can say, David, is I hope Bob and I can put this behind us because I think it takes away the focus--
DAVID GREGORY: Were you threatening him in any way?
I've known Bob a long time, going back to his seminal days as a Watergate reporter. And I'm confident that White Houses have made him a lot more uncomfortable than that e-mail over the course of the years when he's talked to them. Any reporter who's worked in this town has been yelled at by somebody in the White House or somebody on the Hill. It just comes with the territory.Hear that? It should be over now.
This is a speck that became a sandstorm overnight, unfortunately, and I think it's really reflective of the kind of media environment in which we live now, in which everybody's looking to stir something up. When I was covering Watergate, there was a wise old bird who did commentary for The New Republic, and his named John Osborne. He was one of the great, great commentators in this town.
He took me to lunch one day, and he'd had a blowup with the White House the day before. And he looked at me and he said, "You know, Brokaw, the problem is that journalists, all of us, we've got glass jaws. We throw punches; when somebody swings back, we go down with the first punch, screaming foul of some kind." I think that's what we have to keep in mind.
Reading Bob between the lines here in his last appearances, I think he does believe it kind of got out of his control at some point. We've got to move on. The country doesn't care about this. This is about an intramural fight in a high school cafeteria; it should be over now.
Posts
64 comments:
You mean I-am-not-a-Dictator Zero lied?
M L'Inspecteur Reynaud, please pick up the white courtesy telephone.
GENE SPERLING: You are going to regret it.
Christopher Dorner (murderer): You are going to regret it. (for firing me)
See, it can be interpreted any way you want it.
The prior oral conversation would obviously influence the interpretation.
Looking forward to the tapes.
I watched that interview. Gregory actually asked good questions. I think he's sensing danger in continuing to run interference for Obama on this issue.
Perhaps the emperor does, indeed, have no clothes!
Yeah, could we, please, use the word 'lie'? 'Misled' implies good faith. This isn't Frodo (mis)leading the fellowship into the Mines of fucking Moria. This administration has been lying through its teeth to make it seem that sequestration was entirely beyond their control, and something they would neeeeever have proposed. We know that's a bunch of horseshit.
If we had a press worth its weight in pig crap in this country (ha ha ha) this would be bad news for Obama. If the sequester wrecks shit, it's his fault for proposing and structuring it; if it doesn't, Republicans can say, "See? Cutting the budget wasn't so bad! Let's cut more. Chop chop chop chop. No blenders."
That's a fanciful counter-factual, though. I might as well have worked unicorns and pixies into the hypothetical.
Yes but I'm not hearing about the pre-election obfuscation. Obama's bald faced lie at the debate was a reason he was considered a better candidate by LIVers.
It's very clear to me that the appropriate verb is "to lie."
Gregory showed that Obama was a liar. Please people--do not redefine the meaning of the word "to lie." Just accept it as a trait of your guy.
LIVers = Low Information Voters
Lying liars and the lies they tell.
They've spent the last week telling us Woodward made it up. They've opened him up to vile criticism from all quarters of the Obamasymp movement, and then... never mind....
Lying bitches.
The revolution can't start soon enough.
Sperling is a feral attack dog with credentials up the wazoo. Which is to say he's one of our best and brightest.
How much in defense did Barry originally want to cut? Was it $78 billion? I seem to recall it was about $80 billion (this was a couple of years ago.)
Obama and our pathetic unprofessional hack media caught in a lie.
Big surprise. On to the next lie!
Note the 100% pure absence of all liberals on this thread.
They don’t care at all that their dear leader lies. They just continue to worship with bad faith/ blind faith. Obama won! who cares if he's a liar?
OMG!!
That is the most beta male (and david gregory was in there) I have ever seen.
AprilApple said...
Note the 100% pure absence of all liberals on this thread.
I'm sure they consider this one a "white lie" which they all knew about all along. Plus they'd much rather play the Deep Throat game with POTUS than with Bob Woodward.
If Obama lied this brazenly it could be because he has been getting away with perhaps less brazen lies and he thought he would not be called on it.
And then the White House ruffled Woodwards feathers and the cat was out of the bag... sort of speak ;)
Chickelit - Indeed.
Any white lie for Dear Leader is Ok with them. Forward!
Sequester - Schmester.
Good News!
OF COURSE Obama lied. This is news? We used to say How could you know when Clinton was lying? When his lips were moving. Same thing.
But the real news is that we now have an example of a Republican win. According to this Sperling guy, Obama wanted some kind of club in the deal that would increase taxes automatically if there was no deficit reduction deal, and the Republicans refused, so the result was a spending cut-only club: the sequester. AND IT'S NOW IN EFFECT. Obama's actually reducing spending (a LITTLE BIT, and only compared to projected increases, but it's a beginning). Give Boehner some credit.
Does Andrew Sullivan owe Woodward an apology?
I'm betting Sully won't comment on this, considering he's been calling Woodward the liar.
Where are all those people that hung Woodward out to dry?
Sorry professor... I cant help myself.
You got to be really in the tank for Obama when you are willing to roll over one of your own like that... and not just anybody either.
The last of the lone rangers... a John Wayne like mythical figure.
One of the guys that brought down a president of the United States.
In the age of the Internet, there is never going to be another Woodward... and yet... his word against the word of this White House meant nothing.
Back in 2008, who would have predicted this?
My only solace the last four years, and probably for the next four is:
A) The United States and the American people are strong and resiliant, and will one day recover from this spending binge.
and
B) The absolute contempt that honest historians will have in the future when they examine the Obama presidency.
See the Democrats have been playing so many games since Obama won that even they are not sure what games were games and what lies were lies.
Next thing they are gonna tell is is Pelosi really didn't know what was in Obamacare when she said, "we have to pass it in order to find out what is in it."
And they will tell us Obame was not there when the ambassador was killed in Libya.
Wait... I think they have told us all that but American still voted for Obama TWICE!
I like how the sequester is a terrible thing, that nobody wants, was nobody's idea, nobody is responsible for, and nobody can stop from happening. It's like a huge meteor that just suddenly appeared headed straight for the government service most appreciated and valuable.
I did hear today from a Democrat that the sequester is the fault of the Tea Party. As a partier myself I can say I don't exactly mind it, and kinda like that something is almost going to be cut, but the Tea Party only wishes it could make such a thing happen.
I know it's been mentioned already, but it' bears repeating that every worker in the nation just got a 2% pay cut with little hand wringing from all those in government who are now getting forced to accept a similar cut after being the recipients of all that extra money now being taken taken from every worker.
If the workers responded to their cut the way the government is to it's, then every worker would vote against all incumbents and blame it on the pay cut.
Sperling is the perfect Washington survivor.
He's gone from policy failure to policy failure advising politicians for a couple of decades, getting promoted after each sucessless effort.
With a few no work high pay stints on Wall Street to pad the wallet, of course.
They don't want "smart" cuts. Listen to them. They want NO cuts.
What difference,at this point, does it make?
The President's defense--we couldn't help it, we were forced into this--only makes sense if what he wants to do is explode spending. It proves the lie of his oft-repeated claim that he wants to cut spending.
If the President sincerely wanted to cut spending, as he has claimed, he could make a deal with the Congress.
Whenever Obama or one of his apologists talks about a "horrible cut" that they're making, ask "If {whatever} is so important, why are you cutting it instead of something less important?"
They get to decide what to cut, so make them own their decision.
Cripes! Do these folks have any consciousness of when they are telling the truth and when they are lying? Do they even care? Where is the moral foundation of their existence?
They lie so much they must must have as many words for lying reflecting the many nuances of deceit as the Eskimos have words for snow.
Perhaps the emperor does, indeed, have no clothes!
And he's got a little penis too!
Brokaw to the rescue.. move on.. nothing to see here. What a fucking WH Obama lapdog he is and at his age and career too. Disgusting.
Yeah, it seems to be a theme for this administration.
Our fellow Americans are dead. What difference does it make now.
We "mislead" the American people. It should be over now.
Sometimes it should be over now, while other times it should be savored forever.
Forward!
Brokaw to the rescue.. move on.. nothing to see here. What a fucking WH Obama lapdog he is and at his age and career too. Disgusting.
I suppose that to a man like Brokaw there could be no more higher calling than electing, serving, and defending the 1st African American President. So many of his cohort actually believe that, regardless of subsequent fact and circumstance. Pray for them. Their disappointment will be immense. This may shake their faith in America.
...every worker in the nation just got a 2% pay cut
I'm trying to eat 2% less, drink 2% less booze, spend 2% less of my time on Althouse, etc. Who is with me? Together we can get through this.
http://stopobamanowsd.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/obama-i-am-god.jpg
NOW, 4 months after his Dear Leader got re-elected, Gregory shows us I-Am-Not-a-Dictator lied about the sequester in the debate??
Sheesh, so now it must be OK to develop a conscience? The White House better look out, this could get dangerous if more than Gregory & Woodward start calling them on their endless lies (even if they're guilty of hiding it until their dear messiah got 4 more years).
It's a Democrat, it's lying. You can't believe the nonsense they by without lying to yourself.
Any society which is built on trust cannot survive with leftists in it. The conclusion -- and proper response -- is obvious.
The President's defense--we couldn't help it, we were forced into this--only makes sense if what he wants to do is explode spending.
^^^^^
THIS!
...which is why the Democrat-controlled Senate hasn't passed a budget in four years, so that they don't have to make their ruinous spending plans explicit.
Woodward knew he was telling the truth and was being told not to say it..That's why he saw it as a threat.
We've already cut the deficit by $2.5 trillion; $3 of spending cuts for every $1 of revenue.
This makes me jump up and down until I am blue in the face. What an audacious lie. And they keep repeating it. And nobody says boo to them.
Here are the government's numbers in regard to our debt. It's not like there is any dispute about this. Those are the official numbers. And yet when they talk to the media, government officials are spinning these numbers in a really dishonest way.
Why are reporters so oblivious to this? Why does this lie continue to go unchallenged? "We've already cut the deficit by $2.5 trillion." How can anybody let this pass?
Here's an analogy. I take a baseball bat to Gene Sperling. I break his right leg. I break his left leg. I break his right arm, his left arm, and his clavicle. I crack his skull. I break 100 bones in his body.
And next year, my plan is to break 140 bones in his body.
And Gene Sperling is really upset. He's really unhappy. And so we have this big debate. And I agree that next year I will only break 120 bones in his body. And I go on Meet the Press, and I brag about how I saved 20 bones.
Its a nearly impossible task to choose the single person who best embodies a real life Wesley Mouch from among Obama's entourage of rent-seeking and rent-extracting cronies and thugs. But I would certainly put Gene Sperling at the top of the list.
If you lie repeatedly, and yet pay no penalty, you'll never quit lieing. If you've been paying attention, since Obama first showed up on the scene, it's been one lie after another. Everything that he says has an expiration date. Why would be stop? Who will confront him?
Even if someone told Obama that he lied, one thing that you'll never see Barry do, is blush.
Is Sperling the same dude who did "Supersize Me"?
Gene Sperling tries to lie about Obama's lie. Strangely enough David Gregory follows up.
But note how he follows up. Gregory does not call Obama's statement a lie, or even misleading. He says "is there some responsibility he bears for that?" What kind of a question is that?
The issue is not that he bears some responsibility, the issue is that he is flat out lying. And who was the moderator in that debate? Was it "Obama's Right" Candy Crowley?
Here is a vital point.
When Woodward said he was threatened, everyone defended Sperling by interpreting "you're gonna regret it" in the best possible light: As in, you're going to regret it when it comes out you were wrong.
Now that Sperling admits that Woodward was right, that eliminates the possibility of the more innocuous connotation of "you're gonna regret this".
It was a direct threat against Woodward. A direct threat against something of Woodward's that he valued.
It was a threat of retribution.
At this point, we should be debating whether Sperling threatened Woodward's life or his professional reputation.
I'm pretty sure it is the latter, but the White House doesn't deserve the presumption of innocence anymore.
The Gregory question: 'is there some responsibility he bears for that?"
The way Gregory phrases the question is a perfect example of why Obama has nothing to fear from the press. He can call the Tea Party a threat to national security, declare martial law and dismiss Congress and the Journolist press will write stories about this “subversive underground" group that forced Obama to make the move. The daring among them will ask his spokespeople if he bears any responsibility for this.
Evidently tis the season to rebuild some journalistic credibility. On a subject few people are aware of, on a show fewer people watch, presented by those even fewer people give a damn about.
The unprofessional hack media refuse to ask Obama a single tough question. Ever. They simply refuse. Instead we get fawning, soft ball questions, pre-screened talking points and meaningless rhetoric laced with half-truths and outright lies. The pro-state media cover for Obama even when the lie has jumped the shark, all else is exhausted and they are backed into a corner.
Funny that the usual suspects, so quick to cast stones, didn't bother to show up at all. Usually something like this is like flashing the bat signal...but no garage, no Ritmo, not even any Inga....
Odd, that.
Ah well...the day is young. I'm sure they'll be around once they get their talking points.
Right guys?
:)
... and once again the leftist argument is, 'Even when we're wrong, we're right, because... shut up.'
Don'tcha love that characterization. 'Hey the President was just some weak shmuck walking along when this gang of big, bad Republicans stopped him on the street demanding his wallet.'
... The most powerful man in the world, and OMG!!! he's forced to give up his watch to a bunch of knuckleheads with less organization than your local girl scout troop.
what they expected was that, since defense cuts were in there, that the republicans would cave on tax increases.
There are an awful lot of Clintonites in the Obama Administration. Hopefully he brings back Sid Vicious Blumenthal. And his kid too.
I predict that this will have little impact. As someone else said, most LIV's are already past this and most probably still believe, and will continue to believe, that it wasn't Obama's idea. That's how the media play this: Put the lie on the top of Page 1 and a week later put the correction at the bottom of Page 6.
They're not going to start practicing journalism on Obama, not now, and not in the future. They're simply not. Obama can lie and prevaricate all he wants, they are going to cover for him.
Urkel lied? OH NOESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!
CEO-MMP said...
Funny that the usual suspects, so quick to cast stones, didn't bother to show up at all. Usually something like this is like flashing the bat signal...but no garage, no Ritmo, not even any Inga....
Oh, I suspect around 5 PM East Coast time one or two of the stupid cunts will have a link to some lefty site to pimp.
Or perhaps just the usual "Squirel!"
I guess I was wrong. Maybe the sequester cut into the little bitches trolling budget.
Or maybe, deep down in their black little leftist hearts, they know that this shmuck is a full of shit liar.
This makes me jump up and down until I am blue in the face. What an audacious lie. And they keep repeating it. And nobody says boo to them.
Here are the government's numbers in regard to our debt. It's not like there is any dispute about this. Those are the official numbers. And yet when they talk to the media, government officials are spinning these numbers in a really dishonest way.
maybe they know its false but simply don't care to repeat the lie because its self serving for
Them to do so. Just like Ritmo with his, nobody cares about the lack of a budget by
The dems. And similarly, if it turns out to
Have been a democratic idea and Obama lied about it, and no dems have offered any counters to
Maybe cut spending elsewhere, no one cares.
And I too note no Inga, no Ritmo and no Garage. How typical.
"Cripes! Do these folks have any consciousness of when they are telling the truth and when they are lying? Do they even care?"
Do they even know?
Post a Comment