Scott McClellan's Book And The Response

Scott McClellan was President Bush's Press Secretary for almost three years from 2003 to 2006. His new book titled "What Happened" derides the "culture of deception." The book has already roared to Amazon's #1 bestseller. He claims that Bush was using "propaganda" to sell the war, that Rove and Libby had "misled" him about their role in the Valerie Plame issue, and more. If Bush was selling propaganda to the American people, then does that not make McClellan his chief propagandist?

Rove hit back on Tuesday night responding to the former propaganda master on Fox News. Rove sounds pretty convincing in refuting McClellan's claims of secret meetings with Libby which McClellan pyschically determined were about Plame. He said that “this doesn’t sound like Scott. It really doesn’t. Not the Scott McClellan I’ve known for a long time. Second of all, it sounds like somebody else. It sounds like a left-wing blogger. If he had these moral qualms, he should have spoken up about them.” Former White House counselor Dan Bartlett said the book was "total crap," saying that he is "bewildered and puzzled" by "Scott's decision to publicly air these deep misgivings he's never shared privately or publicly" with Bush insiders. "To do it now, through a book, is a mistake," he added. The current Press Secretary Dana Perino said "it is sad. This is not the Scott we knew.”

But all this begs the obvious question that McClellan should answer (which Hannity in fact asks at the end of the Rove interview): If he felt there was so much corruption in the Bush White House, why did he remain Press Secretary for almost three years in a role that required him to be the defender of what he considered to be a corrupt and deceptive administration? Was it the government salary? In truth, there are only two possible reasons. One is that he is cleansing his soul by finally coming out with the truth. Another is that he wants to sell books and controversy does that well. But either way, we need to seriously wonder why McClellan worked for Bush and his advisors for three years as their mouthpiece before coming out with this self-righteous mea culpa. He writes in the book that “history appears poised to confirm what most Americans today have decided: that the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder...What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary.” He was the Press Secretary for an administration he believed was deceptive when it came to sending American boys into harms way, involving America in an unnecessary war. This is not disagreement or deception over farm subsidies were talking about here. This is war. Yet despite the gravity and impact in lives and treasure of the policies he now disagrees with, he stayed on as Press Secretary instead of resigning and coming to the American people with his late-in-the-game grievances. That to me seems inexcusable.
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