Scott McClellan’s Revenge
Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a surprisingly scathing memoir to be published next week that President Bush “veered terribly off course,” was not “open and forthright on Iraq,” and took a “permanent campaign approach” to governing at the expense of candor and competence.
Among the most explosive revelations in the 341-page book, titled “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” (Public Affairs, $27.95):
—McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.
—He says the White House press corps went too easy on the administration.
—He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.”
—The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them – and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him the full facts.
—McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff – “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.
A few reporters were offered advance copies of the book, with the restriction that their stories not appear until Sunday, the day before the publication date. Politico declined, and purchased “What Happened” at a Washington bookstore.
The eagerly awaited book, while recounting many fond memories of Bush and describing him as “authentic” and “sincere,” is harsher than reporters and White House officials had expected.
McClellan was one of the president’s earliest and most loyal political aides, and most of his friends had expected him to take a few swipes at his former colleague in order to sell books but also to paint a largely affectionate portrait.
Instead, McClellan’s tone is often harsh. He writes, for example, that after Hurricane Katrina, the White House “spent most of the first week in a state of denial,” and blames Rove for suggesting the photo of the president comfortably observing the disaster during an Air Force One flyover. McClellan says he and counselor to the president Dan Bartlett had opposed the idea, and thought it had been scrapped.
But he writes that he later was told that “Karl was convinced we needed to do it – and the president agreed.”
“One of the worst disasters in our nation’s history became one of the biggest disasters in Bush’s presidency. Katrina and the botched federal response to it would largely come to define Bush’s second term,” he writes. “And the perception of this catastrophe was made worse by previous decisions President Bush had made, including, first and foremost, the failure to be open and forthright on Iraq and rushing to war with inadequate planning and preparation for its aftermath.”
Clint says:
Nice to see a Texan tell it straight up. Too bad the President forgot to tell it straight up.
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Richie Rich says:
McClellan was a joke – he should have been fired a long time ago…how does someone so inarticulate become press secretary?
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Mark says:
Bush sure misses Bullock’s guiding hand. Too bad to have wasted so many years in the White House. Kudos to McClellan for the inside story.
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Mike says:
How does someone so inarticulate become press secretary? It’s simple…he was presenting precisely what he was being given by the President. Thank God at least ONE Texan is willing to tell the truth about this administration.
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Paula says:
Maybe McClellan’s onto what’s wrong with much of politics today on all sides — all slash and burn — you’re either one of us or you’re the enemy — too bad that people cannot accept critical assessments of themselves and others.
Rove will now try to decimate McClellan.
Rove has already decimated is the public’s trust in the White House, integrity, respect, honor, and most importantly the truth.
I agree that it is too bad that Bullock did not continue to have an influence on Bush, or that Bush let Rove and Cheney have too much unquestioned and unchecked influence.
Rove sure wasted the opportunity he was given to make the United States a better place.
I am looking forward to reading this book for another look at this administration.
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Porteno says:
Paula,
I’m going to pull a ‘Dr Johnson’ and suggest that you check the dictionary definition of decimate. heh.
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Jim says:
Though I love to see the rats snarling and biting after they’ve abandoned ship, I despise the narrative they all seem to build: it was all fine and noble when I decided to join up, but my candidate abandoned the high moral ground some time after that. I was never in it for the self-advancement, and then the President and his henchmen all disappointed me so. I never thought them capable of such perfidy! It’s self-serving horse shit.
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TexasRuby says:
I can’t help but wonder why Scott didn’t know about Karen cleaning up Bush’s military files at Camp Mabry or firing employees in his justice division to hide the fact that he was too busy running for president to sign the grant applications to fund shelters for battered women. This info was talked about at the Capitol. But, I guess Washington D.C. was the Emerald City and he had to follow the Wizard Rove and his dirty ban of government wreckers. If we are luck, Scott will stay on the East Coast with Karl. If we are really lucky, the former president will retire in humiliation behind guarded gates.
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Anonymous says:
Karl Rove said McClellan “sounds like a left-wing blogger.”
Burn.
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Walker Freeman says:
Scott McClellan is son of Carole Keeton Rylander McClellan Strayhorn. Daughter of Page Keeton, powerful head of the Texas State Bar as far back as the Kennedy assasination. Barr McClellan, Scott’s father, wrote about keeping the lid on LBJ’s knowledge of the Kennedy murder. Carole Strayhorn has fliped on political party sympathies many times, but GWB knew that when he asked Scott to be his spokesperson. Scott’s brother Mark McClellan is head of Medicare/Medicaid and before that worked high up within the FDA.
These boys aren’t just ANYBODY. Their family has paid some heavy dues.
Rove says that McClellan’s criticism of FEMA and the Katrina fiasco is unjustified, but Rove needs to answer what he knows about Oliver North’s refusal to answer Texas Representative Jack Brooks question concerning the altered purpose of FEMA under GWHB when Brooks zinged him at the Iran-Contra hearings.
McClellan was a Bush insider when Joe Allbaugh, Governor Bush’s chief of staff, was trying to put the lid on the Texas’ Funeral Gate scandal which leaned on the appointment of Dick Cheney hunting partner Harry Whittington as the governor’s “enforcer”. The key Funeral Gate company, Houston’s Service Corporation Inc or SCI, was later “selected” as THE funeral company for the Katrina victims.
McClellan was also aware of the Scooter Libby connection to Plame’s outing, with Richard Armitage taking the heat away from Rove and accepting the role of “loose lips Armitage”. Armitage took one for the Prez’s brain having dodged an earlier bullet…..one during the Perot/GHWB presidential showdown.
Perot had teamed up with the most decorated Vietnam War Vet, Col Bo Gritz, to out Arimtage’s connection to the Iran-Contra style drug smuggling in Burma’s Golden Triangle. Gritz’s video of the outing is available on the web and though his whistle blowing was shut out of the mainline media, his story was told on the Morton Downey Jr. program.
That, you may NOT know, brought on retribution from the Bush camp toward Mr. Perot and his family. He withdrew from the race citing threats to his children while the media spun the Perot decision as a the irrational personality of another Texas meglomaniac.
Is McClellan looking for his fifteen minutes of fame? I think he is trying to distance himself from an eternity of infamy.
Walker Freeman
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Porteno says:
Walker Freeman –
Could you unearth more pearls of wisdom for me with your next meticulously researched throughly cross-referenced post? You are brilliant and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter!
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Joe says:
If Scott is really seeking to distance himself an eternity of infamy then he should follow MOVEON.ORG’s recommendations and give the profits from the book sales and appearances away. A true litmus test of his character will be whether he does it or not.
Joe
The quote from MOVEON.ORG
” That’s why we’re calling on him to donate the proceeds of his book to a group that helps Iraq veterans, like IAVA. McClellan’s going to be on all the news shows this weekend and if we can make lots of noise about this he’ll probably get asked about it.”
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PLEASE WATCH says:
Don’t think for yourself; don’t read the book; let them think for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEL_hndb0kA
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Anonymous says:
After you read the book, don’t read anything else, don’t read conflicting accounts.
If someone like Ari Fleisher says that Scott is wrong about something, believe Scott McClellen.
Ignore the fact that McClellen was humiliated by having been fired from his job and now wants to show up his former employer.
Ignore the fact that McClellan completely changed the tenor and topics of his book once his George Soros sympathising editor got a hold of his proposal.
Ignore the fact that McClellan initally proposed to write about the Washington press corps that abused him but then, once his editor got a hold of the manuscript and gave him a good talking to, that part magically disappeared.
Ignore the fact that McClellan stands to make a lot more money by writing a book that criticizes Bush rather than giving an even and balanced account of mistakes vs. accomplishments. Ignore the fact that his Texas political family were life long Democrats in the 80’s and turned into Republicans to keep up with the ascendency of Republican fortunes. Scott simply perceives that it is once again fashionable to throw in with the Dems. Another opportunist ala Jim Jeffords– what a tool.
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