Posted on 05/28/2008 3:55:14 PM PDT by newbie2008
Before he wrote his own memoir, White House press secretary Scott McClellan was rather critical of those who did the same.
In fact, some of the same language now being used to trash McClellan he himself used to trash previous administration authors.
On the book critical of the Bush White House written in cooperation with former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, "The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill," McClellan said on January 12, 2004:
McCLELLAN: "It appears to be more about trying to justify personal views and opinions than it does about looking at the results that we are achieving on behalf of the American people."
McClellan also took issue with the book by former Bush White House counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke, "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror," on March 22, 2004:
McCLELLAN: Well, why, all of a sudden, if he had all these grave concerns, did he not raise these sooner? This is one-and-a-half years after he left the administration. And now, all of a sudden, he's raising these grave concerns that he claims he had. And I think you have to look at some of the facts. One, he is bringing this up in the heat of a presidential campaign. He has written a book and he certainly wants to go out there and promote that book. Certainly let's look at the politics of it. His best buddy is Rand Beers, who is the principal foreign policy advisor to Senator Kerry's campaign. The Kerry campaign went out and immediately put these comments up on their website that Mr. Clarke made. ...
Q: Scott, the whole point of his book is he says that he did raise these concerns and he was not listened to by his superiors.
McCLELLAN: Yes, and that's just flat-out wrong.
When someone uses such charged rhetoric that is just not matched by the facts, it's important that we set the record straight. And that's what we're doing. If you look back at his past comments and his past actions, they contradict his current rhetoric. I talked to you all a little bit about that earlier today. Go back and look at exactly what he has said in the past and compare that with what he is saying today.
This book could not have come at a better time for the rats. They are in turmoil thanks to the hitlery and “hating Bush” always brings them together.
The problem is not actually that the military commanders in place trying to plan the war were that bad. A lot of the took heat here on FR and history is proving them and not the administration to have been right. They are to be credited with raising many of the strategic issues that became problems. The Bush loyalist civilian aides and staffers (the infamous so-called neocons) overrode their concerns and charged in willy-nilly. It is pretty well documented now, and no one really disputes it.
Going in with a force too light to do the job was not just a mistake. The planners warned the administration that the force was inadequate. They were told to do it anyway.
The problems that they faced in reconstruction were very well anticipated at USAID, for instance, but again, competent people were overriden by and replaced by Bush loyalists.
Or take the case of Katrina and the director of FEMA , who ought to be a retired Army general with a lot of experience moving and keeping large armies in the field, because a lot of what FEMA has to be able to do is move men and equipment and feed and house and clothe them in places where there is no electricity, sanitation, or running water, just like the Army does.
Instead we got Michael Brown whose claim was that he had been the Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association, (IAHA), from 1989-2001. After Katrina, Michelle Malkin wrote "if someone is a worthless sack of bones[that is a very ladylike way of putting it], I'll say so. And I don't care if he has 'Bush appointee' stamped on his forehead or a GOP elephant tattooed to his backside. Brown's clueless public comments after landfall are reason enough to give him the boot... and he should have never been there in the first place."
How many days of military service do you have that makes you more American than the rest of us? Why is stating the obvious, that Bush is not a conservative and has ill-served the conservative cause, make one a "troll" on FR?
You make some good points, which are worth taking under consideration...
As it stands, the Republican party is dead in its tracks, so this book does not matter. The Republican party had already done itself in, long before this book appeared. Maybe understanding what McClellan says from the inside might give some insights into how Republicans went wrong. Then Republicans can start to figure out how to fix their problems.
Right now everyone is still in denial.
Cut the drama, it does not work with me.
Conservatives are somewhere between denial, and lashing out at anything they can find. What is needed is good light, a mirror and quiet reflection.
Even more interesting (from your link) is the fact that Scott’s father wrote a tell all book as well, using information from the law firm that he worked for, to claim in his book that LBJ killed JFK.
What works, what should work, is analysis of where we are and where we need to go. Start from facts and argue forward. Instead, we attempt to suppress the facts by calling the publisher a liberal and the author a backstabbing traitor. Well traitor to whom?
LOL! Have nothing to say so your resort to bigoted and incredibly ignorant name-calling.
Whatever you do, do not address or admit to any substance in what the man had to say.
Youse is so smaht Roses.
This thing has got to go somewhere...
unfortunately not with me.
I am computer illiterate and it’s bedtime for my kids.
You go Girl, I’ll check in in a bit.
Run along now...you MSM flunky.
Actually, Newt is trying to make a comeback today. He was just on H&C and Bill Bennett’s morning show.
There is a petition that we all need to sign
Something “Drill Here Now” . Somebody please link for me!
My Son’s S.S. teacher is busily sending me a nasty replt to an ongoing e mail..
Started looking... GOTTA GO!
She is Smokin’
There may be substance to what McClellan has to say, I do not know. I do know that we, the conservatives, were not well served by the Texas mafia brought in by George W Bush. They and Bush himself were a disaster for the nation and the conservative movement from which it is quite possible that neither will recover. As for the the crazed RINOs here online, it is best to just ignore them. They do not have the necessary brain matter with which to carry on a conversation.
People need to think long and hard about Harriet Miers and everything that it portended. She was not an isolated case. He just, in this instance, didn't get away with it.
As for the the crazed RINOs here online, it is best to just ignore them.
But it is so much fun hunting them down. Mostly their defense is to call you names, like, MSM or Marxist or troll or dimmie, or some such, but when you try to pin them down as to what they believe, it turns out that they don't actually believe in anything much.
LGF is stealing your thunder!
I was just musing.
Hope you get some kudos for this, you posted prior to their Williams.
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