More trouble is brewing for the Obama administration. Liberal icon and Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein has publicly criticized the Dept. of Justice -- and thus the Administration -- for accessing the phone records of the Associated Press.

Newsmax reports that:

Investigative reporter Carl Bernstein on Tuesday called the scandal involving the Department of Justice securing telephone records of Associated Press reporters and editors a "nuclear event."

"This is outrageous," Bernstein said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "It is totally inexcusable. This administration has been terrible on this subject from the beginning.

"The object of it is to intimidate people who talk to reporters," he said. "This was an accident waiting to become a nuclear event, and now it's happened."

[SNIP]

"The numerical thing doesn't matter," said Bernstein, a former Washington Post reporter who, along with Bob Woodward, broke the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon. "What matters is, this is a matter of policy. It is known to the president of the United States that this is the policy. To say that there was no knowledge, in quotes, specifically about this in the White House is nonsense."

The Obama administration knows they are in trouble when half of the famed "Woodstein" reporters who broke the Watergate story comes out against them. I believe the hotel bars -- and liquor stores -- in Washington are going to do good business late this afternoon. Some political types will be buying to forget -- and others from across the aisle will be buying to celebrate.

A few days ago, Obama was urging graduating seniors at Ohio State to reject the voices of those who "warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems." Now students have one of their near-mythical class-lecture icons, Carl Bernstein, telling them essentially that there are, indeed, sinister goings-on in the government. It's enough to suppress both the youth and mature adult vote for Democrats in 2014.

Of course, there are some in the Obama administration who fantasize that "come the Revolution, we won't need to worry about elections." But, in fact, they already have to worry about General Petraeus and others vying to emerge as the new John Dean. And all this while Maureen Dowd of the New York Times is auditioning for the role of Martha Mitchell, as she criticizes the President by saying he "still has not learned how to govern" -- and worse.

I wouldn't say the president's goose is cooked -- but his lame duck is.