And yet, Woodward has to consider his legacy. He could have professionally retired on Watergate (Bernstein appears to have done so) and he has instead continued to be relevant over the years.
Consider Dan Rather. He had a well established (although largely undeserved and mostly BS) reputation and then tossed the entire thing out the window over his "fake but accurate" GWB National Guard story. His legacy is that he is a nut. Now, Rather did that to himself so he had no way to undo his ruined reputation but with Woodward it is a different story.
Say what you will about Woodward...he is most definitely a left leaning journalist like most in the industry...but he does seem to call things the way he sees them and does seem to deal in facts (however selectively to fit his worldview). And he has, in this case, too, reported the truth about Barry and his thugs. His career seems to have come full circle. He achieved fame and fortune for reporting on a thuggish Nixon White House and here is again in the same sort of situation reporting on a thuggish Obongo White House. So what will he do? Will he end his professional career cowering in fear and having his reputation trashed by those who are vastly inferior to him? Or will he fight back?
I am hoping that he fights back and I think he might. Woodward is very keen on looking at things from a historical standpoint and I do not think he wants to be remembered this way. There are media people who are even now saying that Woodward's efforts regarding the Watergate story were overblown...that he doesn't deserve the reputation that he has acquired. Woodward cannot allow that narrative to become part of the popular historical culture.
What would be very nice is if Woodward goes on a full frontal assault on the administration to prove his point and to also thwart the thug attempts to silence him and ruin his reputation. The admin certainly is a veritable orchard of low hanging fruit in just about any area you care to glance at. The only thing that has been missing up until now is someone in the MFM to actually go after any of it. To me it seems like Woodward is in the catbird seat and can pick and choose whatever and whomever he likes to go after. To use another metaphor, it would be like shooting fish in a barrel...astonishingly easy for an old pro like Woodward. Just as the tools in the MFM try to write him off as a has been he starts cranking out truthful and damaging material, showing them how journalism is really done.
Will it happen? I have no idea. But I hope it does. Woodward may be a left leaning journalist but he is head and shoulders above the propagandists who populate the most of the MFM these days. If he has any fight in him at all it would be (metaphorically) kind of like Bruce Willis in RED kicking Agent Cooper's ass in his own office...yeah, with Aerosmith's "Back in the Saddle" playing in the background.