Meet the New Boss

I have begun a post about the Obama administration droning US citizens to death without due process, and then justifying itself by openly telling us that they won't justify themselves.  I began that post to do what I seem to always do: point out that the current administration just isn't particularly different from the last one.  You all disagree.

I will compromise and agree that this administration is much better on some social issues: happy to see homosexuality less demonized than before.  Good on them.

But I'd really like a concession that failing to justify a major violation of the Constitutional norms of the last few hundred years is really a big deal.  The Bush administration might have gone to war on a lie or lies, but at least that was a routine violation by a president.  No due process before the death penalty is imposed is actually pretty darned unprecedented.

---

I was also told that Bush was never made available to the press.  Turns out that Obama is the least available president of the recent several.  Andrea Mitchell has been pretty mad about it:

---

And now, what has pushed me off my malaise and has made me actually write is intimidation by the White House against the press.  Bob Woodward is pretty unassailable as a source.  You're going to have a hard time arguing that he's either lying or exaggerating, and it's also hard to imagine that he has not been at least fair.  In his own words:

“They’re not happy at all, and some people kind of, you know, said, 'Look, we don’t see eye-to-eye on this,'” Woodward explained on CNN. “It was said very clearly, 'You will regret doing this.'” 

and:

“It makes me very uncomfortable to have the White House telling reporters, you’re going to regret doing something that you believe in,” Woodward told CNN. “And even though we don’t look at it that way, you do look at it that way. And I think if Barack Obama knew that was part of the communication’s strategy – let’s hope it’s not a strategy, but it’s a tactic that somebody’s employed, and said, look, we don’t go around trying to say to reporters, if you, in an honest way, present something we don’t like, that, you know, you’re going to regret this.”

Aside from the plain worry we should all have about this kind of thing, isn't saying something injudicious like "you'll regret this" to Bob F-ing Woodward the dumbest thing ever done by a politician?

Same as the old boss... yes?