5 days to sequester -- WOODWARD v. WHITE HOUSE! Bob challenges a West Winger to debate his sequester reporting with Boehner or aide at Playbook Breakfast -- FAVREAU, VIETOR to form Fenway Strategies Presented by

WHITE HOUSE PUSHES BACK at today’s BOB WOODWARD Opinion-page piece -- WashPost A17 (page before editorials), “Obama’s deal-changer: The long, tortuous road to the sequester.” http://wapo.st/13xAMrF Woodward writes that Obama is “moving the goal posts” by asking new revenue as part of a sequester substitute.

--A White House official responds, “Replacing the Sequester: A Balanced Approach Since Day One”: “There has never been any question that the President seeking revenues as part of a plan to replace the automatic cuts ... was expected from the very beginning in the 2011 fiscal negotiations and the passage of the Budget Control Act. That the President today is seeking a balanced plan to replace it with revenues and entitlement reforms cannot in even the slightest way be considered a change of policy, a change of expectations, or moving the goalposts. ... Republicans and Democrats on the Supercommittee had a clear understanding that revenues and entitlement savings were supposed to replace the sequester.


“There was never any serious question in the next phase of negotiations to replace the sequester with a Grand Bargain – on the Supercommittee – that revenues would be part of the equation ... Negotiations to replace the sequester at the end of 2012 assumed a balance between revenue increases and entitlement savings. Throughout the entire negotiation in November and December of 2012, there was debate between Republicans in Congress and the President over whether to raise tax rates on the most fortunate, and entitlement savings from programs like Medicare. But it was clear from the leadership of both parties that a deal to replace the sequester would include revenue.” Read the two-pager. http://bit.ly/YnwlAc

--Jay Carney (@PressSec): “Moving goal posts? On 11/2/11, 40 House R's signed letter saying they were open to revenue re: the supercommittee. ... Super Committee's mandate was not to replace sequester w/spending cuts alone. To suggest otherwise is willfully wrong.”

--Dan Pfeiffer (@Pfeiffer44): “On p 362 of Woodward's book, he reports Boehner told Dave Camp to offer $600b in revenue to replace the sequester pic.twitter.com/AieWyUeBVY”

--N.Y. Times, col. 5, “POLITICAL MEMO: Fault-Finding Grows Intense As Cuts Near: 2 Parties Quarrel Over Bipartisan Accord,” by Jackie Calmes: “As this weekend arrived, Republicans were circulating a column by Mr. Woodward published online by The Washington Post on Friday, in which he wrote that Mr. Obama was ‘moving the goal posts’ from what he had agreed to in the summer of 2011 by insisting that a sequestration substitute have tax increases as well as entitlement-spending reductions.” http://nyti.ms/134NyCv

WOODWARD RESPONDS in an email to Playbook: “The White House pushback is a classic case of distortion and confusion. We unfortunately have seen this too often in recent presidential history. First, the White House spent months denying paternity for the sequester. To Jay Carney's credit, he acknowledged [Tuesday] it was their ‘idea.’ [Carney: ‘The sequester was something that was discussed, and as has been reported, it was an idea that the White House put forward because it was put forward by Republican Senator Gramm and Rudman back in the ‘80s as part of the Gramm-Rudman deal -- there is a history here to this.’] But they do not want to talk about that now. The rest of the White House statement reflects a confusion of chronology. I do not think it is willful. They are just mixed up, surprisingly so.

“Take the letter from the 40 Republicans, Boehner's offer of $600 billion in revenue and the Pat Toomey revenue offer. The White House implies that these were part of the sequester negotiation. They were not. The sequester agreement had already been signed into law in the summer. Those offers cited by the White House were made in November, 2011 -- while the supercommittee was trying to reach agreement BEFORE its Nov. 23, 2011, deadline -- and did not relate to the sequester. They were trying to reach agreement precisely to avoid the sequester. Ask the Republicans and Boehner. Or ask the Democrats who were on the committee. There is no doubt the president was seeking more revenue all along and there have been revenue discussions all along. I never said or suggested there were not such discussions. But the president agreed to and signed into law the Budget Control Act in the summer of 2011 that said if the supercommittee failed, a sequester of spending cuts only would take place. That's the agreement and the law. To insist that it be replaced with some revenue (even if that is desirable policy) is to move the goal posts.

“The deal negotiated by Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader McConnell on the sequester gave the president something he deemed essential: a one-step increase in the debt ceiling so he and the Congress would not have to repeat another contentious debt ceiling negotiation in election year 2012. That was his win. The Republican win was no tax increases in what became the sequester. Election year 2012 has passed. To seek more tax increases is to change the terms of the agreement. The president is fully entitled to do that but we ought to call it what it is.

“I would be happy to discuss this with a representative of the White House and a representative from Boehner's office at one of your Playbook breakfasts. I will even pay for the toast, bagels and coffee. Bob Woodward Sent from my iPad”

BOOKER ALERT: Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the White House National Security Council and one of the earliest members of the Obama political family, will depart March 1. Vietor plans to start a strategic communications firm, Fenway Strategies, with his bud and colleague, chief White House chief writer Jon Favreau, who announced his March 1 departure earlier. Both grew up in the Boston area and are such big Red Sox fans, they named their company after the stadium. Tommy emails: “It's been a hell of a ride. But after four years in the White House, two on the campaign, and [working] in the [Obama] orbit since the ’04 Senate race, it's time. ... . I will miss working with you guys day to day, and all my W.H. friends. But I will be in D.C. for the foreseeable future, and hope to get to see more people in person once I have some free time.”

Tommy – who still uses the Iowa cell number that’s a legacy of the early days of the ’08 campaign -- started on the Obama Senate campaign in 2004 (after the primary, but several months before the convention speech), as the lowest guy on the totem pole, working for Robert Gibbs. Jon started with Obama a couple months after he became a senator. Favs and Tommy met then, and have worked together ever since. Fenway will be based in D.C. for now. “We both also want to pursue a screenwriting or TV project we've been thinking about forever, and I want to do a lot more TV about the administration and foreign policy,” Vietor wrote. “I plan on being very, very active in defending this administration once I can say whatever I want!”

Favreau, 31, and Vietor, 32, will have a third partner, Ben Schwerin, a former Bill Clinton aide who lives in L.A., and the guys plan to do some work out there. Ben, a Cornell grad, was on Clinton’s staff in Harlem.

--CHRISTI PARSONS broke the news of Favreau’s departure in a piece today in the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune, in a piece about the old-school Obama folks trickling out. We’ll add link here when her article pops up online, and will feature in tomorrow’s Playbook. http://lat.ms/W2McWM

SPOTTED: Secretary of State John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry, enjoying a romantic dinner at Adour at the St. Regis, 16 th and K, on Friday night. They were cozied up in a booth for two, but Kerry graciously greeted diners who stopped by to meet him, and even took a photo with one woman and wished her a happy birthday. He is set to leave today on his first trip abroad as secretary of state, a 10-day excursion with stops in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. (hat tip: Donovan Slack)

WELCOME TO THE WORLD – Patrick and Anne Gavin email: “Bryn Aserna Gavin was born Saturday night at Sibley Hospital in Washington, DC, clocking in at 7.5 lbs. Both Mom and daughter are doing great and Scout will soon wake up to news of a beautiful younger sister. Dad feels blessed to have so many amazing women in his life.”

PALACE INTRGUE -- DAVID IGNATIUS, WashPost A19, “Obama’s guys”: “During President Obama’s first term, there was hidden friction between powerful Cabinet secretaries and [the] White House ... Now Obama has assembled a new team that ... seems more likely to follow the White House lead. The first term featured ... people with heavyweight egos and ambitions who could buck the White House and get away with it. Hillary Clinton and Bob Gates were strong secretaries of state and defense ... Leon Panetta had similar stature as CIA director, as did David Petraeus ... The new team has prominent players, too, but they’re likely to defer more to the White House. Secretary of State John Kerry ... has been a loyal and discreet emissary for Obama .... Chuck Hagel .... has been damaged by the confirmation process and will need White House cover. John Brennan, the nominee for CIA director, made a reputation throughout his career as a loyal deputy. This was especially true these past four years, when he carried the dark burden of counterterrorism policy for Obama. ...

“Obama’s team, ... has centralized national security policy to an unusual extent. This starts with national security adviser Tom Donilon, who runs ... a ‘tight process’ ... This centralizing ethos will be bolstered by a White House team headed by Denis McDonough, the new chief of staff, who is close to Obama in age and temperament. Tony Blinken, who was Vice President Biden’s top aide, has replaced McDonough as NSC deputy director, and State Department wunderkind Jacob Sullivan, who was Clinton’s most influential adviser, is expected to replace Blinken. That’s lot of intellectual firepower for enforcing a top-down consensus. ... [Members of the new team] share his commitment to ending the war in Afghanistan and avoiding new foreign military interventions, as well as his corresponding belief in diplomatic engagement. ...

“In Obama’s nomination of people skeptical about military power, you can sense a sharp turn away from his December 2009 decision for a troop surge in Afghanistan. The White House felt jammed by the military’s pressure for more troops, backed by Gates and Clinton. Watching Obama’s lukewarm support for the war after 2009, one suspected he felt pushed into what he eventually concluded was a mistake. ... But by assembling a team where all the top players are going in the same direction, he is perilously close to groupthink. http://wapo.st/1335ltG

**A message from Environment America: President Obama has the authority to drastically cut carbon pollution from dirty power plants. More than 3.2 million Americans have already told his administration to act. It's time for the President to lead on climate change: http://www.environmentamerica.org/LeadOnClimate **

SUNDAY-SHOW UPDATE: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is live at the top of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” and on CNN’s “State of the Union,” talking sequestration effects on air travel.

SPECIAL HOUR-LONG “60 MINUTES” SEGMENT TONIGHT, “Killing bin Laden”: “Scott Pelley interviews ‘Mark Owen,’ a former SEAL who was in the room when Osama bin Laden died from American bullets ... ‘Owen,’ a pseudonym he uses for security, recalls each step of the mission and the preparation he and the nation's elite force made for it, in order to give credit to his SEAL comrades and the hundreds of others whose work played a role in the successful mission. This historic account will be in four parts and will comprise the whole hour. Henry Schuster is the producer.” Preview clip http://cbsn.ws/YnAq7r

THE JUICE – MICHAEL GOLDFARB on A1 of Sunday N.Y. Times – “A Conservative Provocateur, Using a Blowtorch as His Pen,” by Jim Rutenberg (middle of page, with half-column pic of Goldfarb): “At 32, Mr. Goldfarb is a founder of The Free Beacon, which is gaining prominence as a conservative clarion; a onetime presidential campaign aide to Senator John McCain, who provided critical support for the filibuster; and the strategist for the Emergency Committee for Israel, an anonymously financed group that advertises against President Obama and Congressional Democrats as insufficiently supportive of Israel. On top of that, he is a partner at Orion Strategies, a consulting firm whose clients have included the national governments of Taiwan and Georgia. An all-around anti-liberal provocateur, Mr. Goldfarb has blazed a trail in the new era of campaign finance, in which loosened restrictions have flooded the political world with cash for a whole new array of organizations that operate outside the traditional bounds of the parties.

“Often working with money from major Republican donors, ... Goldfarb has been in the middle of nearly every major partisan dispute of Mr. Obama’s presidency — over Iran, Israel, terrorism policy and now Mr. Hagel and guns. For a time, Mr. Goldfarb worked as a communications strategist to the leading bêtes noires of liberals, the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. ... After college, Mr. Goldfarb took a job as a receptionist at The Weekly Standard and worked his way up.” http://nyti.ms/13Cpgvh

--MICHAEL BRUNE, Sierra Club executive director -- “Sierra Club goes bolder in climate fight,” by POLITICO’s Talia Buford: “That edge was on display last week, when the Sierra Club’s two top leaders and 46 other climate activists zip-tied themselves to the White House gates to protest the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline. The organization called it the first time it had suspended its decades-long policy against club-sanctioned civil disobedience. ... Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune and the other protesters .... were ... inspired by massive anti-Keystone sit-ins at the White House in late 2011 .... Brune came to the Sierra Club in 2010 after seven years as executive director of the Rainforest Action Network, a group whose activists have rappelled down office buildings and trespassed at corporate headquarters to get the attention of businesses like paper manufacturers, coal mining companies and banks. Brune, a former Greenpeace organizer, has gone to jail before.” http://politi.co/YmdfbZ

BREAKING – “Dozens hurt after crash debris hits Daytona stands,” by AP’s Mark Long in Daytona Beach, Fla.: “With the start of the Daytona 500 just hours away, ... at least 33 people were injured when a car flew into the fence during a NASCAR race at Daytona International Speedway, sending a tire and large pieces of debris sailing into the stands. ... The final-lap accident Saturday marred the second-tier Nationwide Series race on the eve of a spectacle often called the Super Bowl of motorsports. Late into the night, track workers were scrambling to repair a huge section of fence that separates fans from the high-speed track. ... The season opener will go off as planned” today.

SEQUESTERWATCH -- N.Y. Times A18, “As Cuts Loom, Governors Seek More Control of Federal Funds to Lessen the Pain,” by Robert Pear: “The governors, arriving here for the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, said that the automatic across-the-board cuts in federal spending that are scheduled to begin at the end of the week, were creating havoc, threatening jobs and sapping economic growth in their states. They urged the president and Congress to strike a deal that would allow state officials to set priorities and prune spending in a more selective way. .... The governors put aside their partisan disagreements and united in sending an urgent message to Congress.” http://nyti.ms/ZApI0k

--HOW IT’S PLAYING: WashPost 1-col. lead, “Debate shifts to impact of cuts: DEMOCRATS WARN OF SEQUESTER PAIN -- But GOP could win if effects aren’t immediate” ... L.A. Times A1, “Neither side blinks in budget standoff: Across-the-board spending cuts are set to take effect in a matter of days.”

OSCARS TONIGHT (ABC, 7 p.m.) -- “Big studios behind swag-fueled Oscar push,” by AP’s Ryan Nakashima in L.A.: “Giant coffee table books, iPod Shuffles, signed letters from directors, even ‘Lincoln’ turkey roasting pans. That's just some of the largesse doled out by the studios to voters for awards presented earlier this season ... Such gifts are strictly forbidden by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But for studios, the stakes are high, and they've been creative in working around the rules to give their movies the best spotlight possible. A best picture win can boost a film's commercial appeal and solidify relations with big-name actors and directors. This year, top Oscar contenders ‘Argo’ from Warner Bros. and ‘Lincoln’ from Disney pitted two deep-pocketed rivals against each other in what some say was an unprecedented level of Oscar campaigning. There was even some targeted sniping about the films' bending of historical facts ... all of it an attempt to reach the 5,800 academy members ...

“One look at the release pattern of ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ and it's clear that Sony didn't want to repeat what happened to ‘The Hurt Locker,’ another Kathryn Bigelow-directed war film that despite its best picture win, made just $19 million in theaters worldwide. Part of the problem with ‘Hurt’ was that it came out in June and was all but gone from theaters by the time the Oscar nominations rolled around. Instead, ‘ZDT’ showed in just a handful of theaters in December to qualify for the 2012 Oscars, but burst onto 3,000 theaters the day after the nominations in January, capturing the top spot at the box office that weekend. ... Starting small and then going wide after the nominations is the ‘Playbook’ that The Weinstein Co. [‘Siliver Linings Playbook’ ]has followed for years ... ‘Argo,’ which came out in October, was heavily advertised by Warner Bros. ahead of the DVD release this Tuesday. The studio began selling digital downloads two weeks ahead of that. Fox followed a similar strategy for ‘Life of Pi.’” http://yhoo.it/X3mwb7

--PRINTABLE 1-page ballot for your Oscars party http://bit.ly/XT2wUb

NATE SILVER, on Oscar predictions: “The Oscars ... provide for plenty of parallels to political campaigns. ... [T]here are different constituencies, like the 15 branches of the Academy (like actors, producers and directors) ... There is plenty of lobbying from the studios, which invest millions in the hopes that an Oscar win will extend the life of their films at the box office. And there are ... polls in the case of presidential races, and for the Oscars, the litany of other film awards that precede them. So our method will now look solely at the other awards that were given out in the run-up to the Oscars ... These have always been the best predictors of Oscar success. In fact, I have grown wary that methods that seek to account for a more complex array of factors ... If a film is the cinematic equivalent of Tim Pawlenty — something that looks like a contender in the abstract, but which isn’t picking up much support from actual voters — we should be skeptical that it would suddenly turn things around.” http://nyti.ms/132vmcF

--NATE’S PICKS ... Best Picture: “Argo” (“would be an enormous upset if it were to lose”), far ahead of “Zero Dark Thirty,” with “Lincoln” third ... Best Director: Steven Spielberg in “Lincoln,” edging Ang Lee for “Life of Pi” ... Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln,” way ahead of Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook” ... Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook,” nipping Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty” ...... Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln,” well ahead of Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master” ... Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, “Les Misérables” (“about as safe a bet ... as Mitt Romney was to win Utah”).

--“Swag is not the same anymore: Social media has altered gifting, and A-listers are harder for sellers to catch,” by L.A. Times’ Amy Kaufman and Chris Lee: “Each [nominee] will score an ‘Everybody Wins at the Oscars’ gift basket worth just less than $48,000. ... Distinctive Assets, the marketing firm that puts together the gift, charges brands a minimum of $4,000 — and up to $20,000 — to be included ... [M]ost of the big-ticket items ... aren't ... redeemed. Last year, interior designer Seyie Putsure offered a gift card worth $10,000 toward a design consultation for three rooms in a star's home. Only Jessica Chastain took her up on it. In four years of giving away $20,000 African safaris for two, Premier Tours only had one Oscar nominee turn up ... Marisa Tomei. .... The IRS requires the recipients of swag bags to declare ... income, because the gifts come in exchange for attending an event.” http://lat.ms/VEvmec

MEDIAWATCH – N.Y. Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan, “A Mind of Their Own, and the Freedom to Speak It”: “Readers ask ... on a fairly regular basis: How much freedom do The Times’s star columnists have? Are they edited or directed at all? ... Columnists have almost inviolable free rein on subject matter. ... One recent exception was [editorial page editor Andrew] Rosenthal’s directive that columnists not all write about the Newtown school massacre within a day or two of one another. ... [A] few said they wouldn’t mind having a regular sounding board ... ‘All writers can use an editor,’ [Maureen Dowd] said, ‘especially those of us charged with “stirring the beast,” as the political cartoonist Pat Oliphant [a fellow Washington Star alumnus] used to call editorializing.’ ... These writers usually send their columns directly to copy editors, who may raise questions of word choice, clarity and the logic of their arguments. ... [Feedback] happens, [Rosenthal] said, in many ways, including regular (at least annual) dinners that he and the Times publisher, Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., have with each columnist.” http://nyti.ms/VZpqz7

SPORTS BLINK -- Mike Lupica debuts new week ESPN Radio show” today – ESPN release: “Sunday mornings will now feature ‘The Mike Lupica Show’ (9-11 a.m. ET) preceded by ‘The Ian O’Connor Show’ (7 a.m.). ... Lupica, the critically acclaimed lead columnist for the New York Daily News and national television personality, hosts a weekday afternoon show on ESPN NY 98.7 FM. ‘The best part of sports is the conversation: You say Kobe and I say Michael Jordan; Bird or Magic; Montana or Brady or Peyton,’ Lupica said. ‘I’m just going to do what I’ve been doing on my daily show on ESPN New York — ask you to join the conversation ... People talk about why they like our show, ‘The Sports Reporters,’ and they invariably come back to one thing — they feel like they’re part of that conversation. So now they ... get to join it on ... my own version of the Sunday sports section.’”

BIRTHDAYS: Kate Kelly, communications director at Department of the Interior. She celebrated last night with friends at dinner in Dupont Circle. .... Club for Growth President Chris Chocola is 51 (hat tip: Barney Keller) ... Zell Miller ... Mark Salter (hat tips: Patrick Gavin) .... former Sen. Joseph Lieberman is 71 ... Lindsay Hamilton, the Center for American Progress’s director of media strategy. To make her birthday amazing, “like” her cat, Darth Vader, on Facebook. (paw tip: Andrea Purse) http://on.fb.me/YLqUaY ... Jacqueline Hackett, drug-abuse prevention advocate and Deputy Director for Policy at ONDCP ... Allison Branca of Public Strategies Washington will celebrate 23 with a brunch in Dupont (h/t Alysha Love) ... Blake Waggoner, formerly of Gov. Branstad's campaign and in the administration as his public liaison; most recently worked for a public affairs firm in Iowa, but has found his way back to D.C. (h/t Eric Gregg) ... Paula Zahn is 57 ... Sammy Kershaw is 55 (h/ts AP)

**A message from Environment America: President Obama has the authority to drastically cut carbon pollution from dirty power plants. More than 3.2 million Americans have already told his administration to act. It's time for the President to lead on climate change: http://www.environmentamerica.org/LeadOnClimate **

Follow us on Twitter Anna Palmer @apalmerdc



Jake Sherman @JakeSherman