A couple weeks ago, commenting on the stunning idiocy of White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, I wrote the following assessment:
We are used to hearing less-than-the-truth from Mr. Bush’s spokes-people. As with her predecessors – the heinously disreputable Ari Fleischer, propaganda automaton Scott McClellan, and grinning liar Tony Snow – the crap Ms. Perino spews is recited from the White House’s meticulous disinformation script. With the guys before her, one at least had the sense that they understood what they were dissembling about. With Ms. Perino, one gets the distinct feeling that she rarely has a clue.
Now, deceit-bot Scott McClellan steadfastly denies being half as smart as the credit I gave him. It seems Scotty has a new book coming out, unpoetically titled What Happened, in which he blames the lies he routinely told at his press briefings on his superiors in the White House. He claims complete ignorance.
Here’s the brief excerpt issued by his publisher:
The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.
There was one problem. It was not true.
I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President’s chief of staff, and the President himself.
Really? Who ever would have guessed!
If this book is supposed to be confessional, the publisher’s synopsis captures the spirit perfectly:
With unprecedented candor, one of George W. Bush’s closest aides takes readers behind the scenes of the Bush presidency, and what exactly happened to take it off course.
We fully understand that candor from Scott McClellan would be astonishingly unprecedented; but does anyone expect to find insight into the Bush fiasco from the only man in America who, if we are to believe him, thought he was telling the truth at press briefings?
memestream 
We should offer the McClellan award at least once each year for the most important candid remark by a government shill.
Well, the book is finally out — and so are the White House knives for Mr. McClellan. It seems that Scotty’s guilty conscience is somewhat assuaged by this kiss-and-tell; but he shouldn’t be expecting dinner invitations from any of his old friends in Bushland.
I don’t have a television, so my exposure is extremely limited. I did learn, however, that my friend Fran Townsend, President Bush’s former counter-terrorism adviser, has become a commentator for CNN. I saw her comment on the McClellan book while waiting for a plane this morning in the Seattle airport. Mr. Bush’s advisers, she said, have an obligation to come forward with criticisms to the president in a timely manner; and she never heard Mr. McClellan say “Boo” about any of this stuff when he was working at the White House. This defense misses the mark pretty badly. Mr. McClellan wasn’t and adviser, per se; he was the Press Secretary, feeding the media the lies he was fed, or helped to generate. Mr. McClellan’s credibility problem is not, as Fran would have it, about the truth of his criticisms of Mr. Bush and his cronies. The open issue is Mr. McClellan’s culpability at the time in spinning the administration propaganda. It’s the same old question: what did he know and when did he know it?
The other important question is the Colin Powell question: why didn’t he speak up, or resign, earlier?
I don’t think the White House has ordered an assault like this since Normandy! :lol: