Regrets, I've Had a Few

Let's be clear about something at the outset. You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don't mess around with Gene Sperling:

The White House official whom Bob Woodward charged had crosssed a line by saying he would "regret" printing his version of a set of Washington negotiations was Gene Sperling, the director of the White House Economic Council, a source familiar with the exchange told BuzzFeed Wednesday.

The email from Sperling to Woodward, which Woodward read to Politico Wednesday, has transfixed Washington, with Republicans and some in the press charging that it embodies a White House lording it over a cowed press corps.

Woodward, Politico reported, called the top official — identified to BuzzFeed as Sperling — to tell him that he would question Obama's account of negotiations leading to the "sequester" — automatic cuts set to take effect next month.

The aide "yelled at me for about a half hour," Woodward said, and then sent a follow-up email that read, in part: "You're focusing on a few specific trees that give a very wrong impression of the forest. But perhaps we will just not see eye to eye here. … I think you will regret staking out that claim."

And sure enough, the flying monkeys are already out. Check out what's left of Josh Marshall's credibility:

There's a reason it's called Talking Points Memo

Good grief -- how embarrassing. Woodward makes an important point about all this:

"They have to be willing to live in the world where they're challenged," he told Politico. "I've tangled with lots of these people. But suppose there's a young reporter who's only had a couple of years — or 10 years' — experience and the White House is sending him an email saying, 'You're going to regret this.' You know, tremble, tremble. I don't think it's the way to operate."

Well, yeah. Of course if you can count on the Josh Marshalls of the world to have your back, your average garden variety Obama official is going to feel pretty secure that he can get by with issuing threats.

It's tough to see the larger picture when you're in the middle of something and perhaps someday some of Obama's defenders will have a few regrets of their own. But right now, in the moment, we're seeing behavior that is pretty astonishing.