There was a time when Carl Bernstein was celebrated for speaking truth to power and relentlessly pursuing a president even though the rest of his colleagues didn’t join him in following a political scandal that involved a second-rate break-in at the Watergate Hotel. Bernstein’s work in bringing down President Richard Nixon became an inspiration for journalists everywhere.
How disappointed are all those journalists who joined the profession because they wanted to be the next Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein as they turn on Monday’s “Morning Joe” and hear Carl Bernstein dismiss any suggestion that Barack Obama might have any involvement in the much-larger-than-a-hotel-break-in story about the IRS targeting conservative groups.
CARL BERNSTEIN: Lisa Myers’ point is correct. In the Nixon White House, we heard the President of the United States on tape saying use the IRS to get back at our enemies. I’d be very surprised —
SCARBOROUGH: That is what you would call a smoking gun, right? If you have it on tape!
BERNSTEIN: We know a lot about President Obama.
SCARBOROUGH: Buchanan was right. They should have burned the tapes! But go ahead.
BERNSTEIN: We know a lot about President Obama and I think the idea that he would want the IRS used for retribution, we have no evidence of any such thing. I think we also got a look at all of these events in the last couple of days in terms of the poisonous hyper-partisanship and ideological warfare in Washington that is making governance impossible.
Watch the segment here: (H/T MRC)