Washington Post Prints Obama Letter With Key Deletions

The Washington Post on Wednesday printed a letter President Barack Obama sent to all federal employees regarding the government shutdown — with some key deletions.

The story was headlined "President gives shutdown notice while praising public servants," but did not include the president's reference to "partisan measures" in the Republican-controlled House.

The lines cut from the letter by the Post included these, The Weekly Standard revealed: "You do all this in a political climate that, too often in recent years, has treated you like a punching bag. You have endured three years of a Federal pay freeze, harmful sequester cuts, and now, a shutdown of our Government. And yet, you persevere, continuing to serve the American people with passion, professionalism, and skill."

"None of this is fair to you,” the letter says. “And should it continue, it will make it more difficult to keep attracting the kind of driven, patriotic, idealistic Americans to public service that our citizens deserve and that our system of self-government demands. . .

"This shutdown was completely preventable. It should not have happened. And the House of Representatives can end it as soon as it follows the Senate’s lead, and funds your work in the United States Government without trying to attach highly controversial and partisan measures in the process."

The Standard observes: "One has to ask, is the Post deleting those parts of the president's message that they thought might be unhelpful in tone?"

The Post did include a link to the entire letter.