"Can you imagine Ronald Reagan sitting there and saying ‘Oh, by the way, I can’t do this because of some budget document?’ Or George W. Bush saying, ‘You know, I’m not going to invade Iraq because I can’t get the aircraft carriers I need’ or even Bill Clinton saying, ‘You know, I’m not going to attack Saddam Hussein’s intelligence headquarters,’ as he did when Clinton was president because of some budget document? Under the Constitution, the president is commander-in-chief and employs the force. And so we now have the president going out because of this piece of paper and this agreement, I can’t do what I need to do to protect the country. That’s a kind of madness that I haven’t seen in a long time."
He went on moaning and groaning about Obama saying he had to reduce the number of aircraft carrier groups currently parked on Iran's doorstep from two to one because of the sequester. You know, they're over there baiting the Iranians to "protect the country."
Protect our oil is more like it. And suppose Geo W Bush hadn't been able to invade Iraq because no money. Quelle dommage!
But that would never have happened because "no money" was never a consideration that stood in the way of a man of action like Dubya.
I'd say Woodward is a particularly noteworthy case of extreme rectal-cranial impaction, except I know that his views are typical of the Washington press corps. "Madness" in their minds is anything close to sanity.
There's a lot more analysis of this quote at A Tiny Revolution. What interests me most about it is the trajectory of Woodward's career, which is almost a cliché it's so typical -- they start off as real newspaper reporters, and end up as old men and cretins. It's called "becoming established."
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