Posted on 05/29/2008 4:12:32 AM PDT by ConservativeMajority
Former Colleagues, White House Reporters Stunned By McClellan Allegations
MSNBC’s spittle-spewing Chris Matthews had a new “tingle running down his leg” Wednesday with the release of a “tell-all” book by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan critical of the Bush administration. However, Matthews was only one among legions of Old Media liberals gushing about McClellan’s tome.
In "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," McClellan said that the war in Iraq was “unnecessary” and sold with “propaganda” and suggested that Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and maybe Vice President Dick Cheney conspired to conceal their roles in the Valerie Plame affair.
Media reports about the contents have left former colleagues “puzzled” and some members of the White House Press Corps “surprised” at the bitter tone and scathing accusations. Current White House Press Secretary Dana Perino dismissed McClellan as a “disgruntled employee” and Scott’s predecessor Ari Fleischer and successor Tony Snow came to a similar conclusion. Karl Rove told the hosts of Hannity & Colmes that McClellan’s book sounded like the rantings of a “left wing blogger.”
Add me to the growing list of those who are having great difficulty understanding McClellan’s motives. I spent two years as a White House reporter, much of it during McClellan’s reign. At no time did Scott ever indicate, either publicly or privately, he had the misgivings he expressed in this book.
What I hear about the book does not sound like the Scott McClellan I knew for two years. I can say without fear of contradiction, that I knew Scott better than any other White House correspondent or Washington reporter.
In my book, “The Great Media War: A Battlefield Report” I discussed McClellan’s handling of the White House press operation. At every turn, I gave Scott the benefit of the doubt for the devastating communication failures that plagued the Bush administration. It now appears that Scott did not deserve such allowances. By his own admission, McClellan either perpetrated a fraud behind the podium or has done so with this book. Whichever the case, Scott McClellan’s credibility is zero.
However, something as “trivial” as credibility will not stop the rabid liberal media from accepting McClellan’s words as gospel – because it represents the “truth” they desire. The media mavens who once characterized McClellan as a clueless dunce at the bottom of the information totem have miraculously transformed him into a central figure in the decision-making process. So much for their credibility.
While I was attending the daily White House press briefings, most reporters, including me, complained that McClellan rarely strayed from his talking points to provide substantive information. Now McClellan has written a book around a set of liberal talking points, “Bush lied, Rove guilty, Iraq a mistake, Cheney calls the shots, and so on.”
What I believe it comes down to is McClellan’s desire to cash in. The only way for a former member of the Bush administration to cash in with a lucrative book deal is to bash George W. Bush. Paul O’Neill and Richard Clarke figured that out, Gen. Tommy Franks, George Tenet and L. Paul Bremer did not. In 2005, Ari Fleischer wrote a book about his tenure as White House Press Secretary that the Old Media paid little attention to for the same reason: no Bush bashing.
Compare the buzz Scott’s book is generating to that of former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Doug Feith, the first key player from the administration to discuss the process by which America went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even though Feith provided substantial documentary evidence in the form of memos, communications and intelligence analysis, the liberal media ignored his book, “War and Decision, Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism.”
I suspect the reason lies in the fact that Feith challenged the “conventional wisdom” about the decision to topple Saddam Hussein and presented a cogent argument for having done so. Because Feith did not embrace the viewpoint of the Bush-hating Old Media, his work was ignored. However, McClellan’s uninformed opinions, overheard conversations and unsubstantiated assumptions will be held in far higher regard than Feith’s scholarly work because it follows the preferred template.
If Scott McClellan believed all the things he has written, one has to wonder why he chose to endure the abuse day after day from the White House Press Corps and the liberal pundits who now clamor to praise him.
McClellan could have resigned in protest or simply moved on with his dignity intact. Now he looks pathetic, vindictive and opportunistic. Not much of a legacy.
Whatever my own qualifications or lack thereof, I totally support the war.
Ahem......Jeff Gannon says he knows Scott better than any others and Jeff Gannon is GAY and I think Scott is Gay and David Brock FLIPPED him.
There are three kinds of people in this world, those who make things happen, those who watch what happens, and those who say 'What Happened?'
The book is merely suggestive...no meat...
I'd say he's now got an offshore account...
Hmmm, gay? Scott had a pasty-faced look on his face on some of the interviews I saw. As if he’s guilty of something. Naw! /s
Gay or not, there’s something degenerate about what he did.
And, as was spoken in “Platoon” (I think), “Don’t mean nuthin’.”
You know, Jeff Gannon is/was a FReeper. I wonder if he still lurks here.
Rush nailed it yesterday on his show. Another Republican turning on his own because he wants to be liked by the liberal Washington establishment. Ari Fleischer has it right, McClellan burned a lot of bridges for a few weeks of attention from the leftist media.
Hes a now hero in Austin.....but a turd in the rest of Texas.
Why can’t someone be smart enough to set up the liberal media and expose them for what they are? For example, writing this book with the purpose of drawing the response from the liberals (as this has done), and then revealing through secured affidavits that the whole intent was to expose the media through the release of false information that fit their political template and their self-mandate to manipulate popular opinion and thought.
I never could understand why the White House had this incoherent boob as a TV press secretary.
He has his 15 minutes of fame.
It’s not necessary to prove the obvious.
The Soros Connection has been confirmed HERE...
I'm pretty sure that “Don’t mean nuthin’ ...comes from “Hamburger Hill”
Are you kidding me? If by now someone in the world doesn't know who the DBM are, and what their agenda is, then they are just being totally ignorant and don't care at worst, or wilfully blind at best!
He needs to be asked about Scott.
McClellan’s book has accomplished one thing: It finally got the Administration to respond to something.
The Admin has allowed the leftists, media, and Dems to run roughshod over them for 7 years. They have tried and tried and tried to bring the ‘new tone to Washington’ by rolling over to nearly every criticism and allegation — until McClellan’s book.
Now, the Admin has its people out on the talk shows in full spin mode. The Admin has already put out more effort to combat the allegations in McClellan’s book than they have on nearly any other issue.
Any word on how much he’s being paid to betray his former employer?
One’s got to wonder how the Bush man can surround himself with such an incompetent, spineless, back stabbbing boob.
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