Posted on 05/29/2008 9:38:42 AM PDT by The_Republican
There are several kinds of Washington memoirs: “I Reveal the Honest Truth,” a kiss-up-and-tell designed to settle scores (nod to honesty optional). “I Was There at the Start,” designed to make the author appear to be the linchpin of history. And, most tedious: “I Knew It Was a Terrible Mistake, but I Didn’t Mention It Until I Got a Book Contract.”
Scott McClellan’s memoir is the latest entry in the latter genre. Among his far-too-late admissions, President Bush’s former spokesman reveals that he knew the war in Iraq was “a serious strategic blunder,” but the White House decided the best course was “to turn away from candor and honesty.”
This is the same Scott McClellan who presumably had a big role in creating the White House’s communications strategy and joined in the “culture of deception” with such zeal that we lost count of the times he ridiculed critics of the war and questioned their patriotism.
Mr. McClellan also knew that the White House’s handling of Hurricane Katrina was a disaster. No doubt he misspoke when he sneeringly accused those who questioned the administration’s serial failures of playing a partisan “blame game.”
The president’s retired mouthpiece now admits that it wasn’t true when he said that Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby Jr. were not involved in leaking the identity of a C.I.A. operative, Valerie Wilson. But he blames Mr. Rove, Mr. Libby and “possibly” Vice President Dick Cheney for deceiving him. He says they also lied to the president.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
NYT: “Where was this cockroach when we needed him?”
Does Scott McClellan need money? Is that why he wrote the book?
I’m hoping to write a book about how I thought it was a mistake for Scott McClellan to write this book.
Payback payday: Hell hath no fury like a spokesman scorned.
You need to disparage President Bush or have a sex scandal to get a best seller these days... Which is it? :)
We live in such media frenzied times. Everyone doing thier part to get face time and be/feel important. What happened to humility and graciousness under fire? What happened to confidentiality? What happened to morality and respect?
What happened to loyalty and dedication to Country?....WTF happened?
One word: LIBERALS
Michael Brown’s book is coming out after the election. He said that he didn’t want to seem political (Katrina). He’s going to claim that he wanted to airlift people out of La but was over ruled by TSA. He even suggested placing armed marine on board for security.
Pants on fire.
It seems like a lot to ask, for a writer to string truthful sentences together. Is there not one honest writer working for the Times?
In my opinion it’s the ultimate chicken-sh*t sell out. While I have never particularly been a big fan of Bush’s compared to somebody like President Reagan, to cash in and stab the person who made you is weak. This guy would have been a nobody without Bush.
To become the darling of the media - coupled with the desire to cash in is just so weak and pathetic. It’s a person who is easily manipulated and lack self assurance and self confidence. He really has no principle or integrity.
I think McClealan was given a good payday for the rights to his book and the publisher provided a virulent ghost writer suffering from BDS.
I don’t think scott actually wrote the book. I think this DOES demonstrate why he is among if not THE worst press secretary ever.
It is a sad end to his political career.
“The president’s retired mouthpiece now admits that it wasn’t true when he said that Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby Jr. were not involved in leaking the identity of a C.I.A. operative, Valerie Wilson..”
Richard Lee Armitage leaked Valerie Palme’s name and no laws were broken. Get over it.
The NYT printed an op ed by her husband that was a lie. Wilson has been exposed as a lying liar.
Data
What I Didn’t Find in Africa,” written by Wilson and published in the New York Times the previous week, on July 6, 2003. In his op-ed, Wilson stated that the George W. Bush administration exaggerated unreliable claims that Iraq intended to purchase uranium yellowcake from Niger to support the administration’s arguments that Iraq was proliferating weapons of mass destruction so as to justify its preemptive war in Iraq.
Absolutely nothing happened to this woman or to her husband other than a great deal of enrichment. Nothing. This thing is a non-scandal, a non-issue, and it always was. Contrived. Made up. Woven out of fairy-dust. Inside the Beltway it appears to be regarded as the Bay of Pigs and the Aldrich Ames case rolled into one. Some of those folks really need to step outside that sinkhole for a little fresh air now and then.
Major bleating from a drama queen with a book to sell, IMHO. I think I've given this jackass as much time as I'm going to.
Truly a Nelson Muntz moment.
More pants on fire.
The governor of Louisiana refused to send in the National Guard because it "wasn't safe". Ambulances and relief supply trucks were held up by a cordon surrounding the city because the governor would not allow them to go in because "it wasn't safe". National Guardsmen from neighboring states were mobilized and ready to go but the governor would not allow them in because "it wasn't safe".
The situation didn't get set right until the president federalized it, something he didn't have to do in Texas, Alabama, or Mississippi.
The Navy was in place before the wind stopped blowing, FEMA was in place before the hurricane landed, everything on the federal side was ready to go. The disaster occurred because the governor and mayor were hopelessly incompetent. The president was eventually forced to bypass them. Its not supposed to work like that, and no where else did he have to bypass the local authorities the way he had to do there.
For that matter, no where else was a cordon put around the city to keep the victims locked inside the disaster zone, and the rescuers locked out. Only in Louisiana.
McClelland seems not to have noticed any of that. Bush ought to have fired this guy fifteen minutes into his first news conference.
I think it is pretty obvious he used a publisher provided ghost writer given the amount of BDS talking points that have found their way into this hit book.
I think the REAL story is “WHO is the ghost writer?”
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