Scott McClellan Grabs A Seat At The Former-Bush-Aide-Turned-Author Table

Long before the White House Press Corps became saddled with Dana "The Gift That Keeps On Giving" Perino, they got to receive their briefings from Scott "The Gift That Gave As Well As He Could Given The Relative Lack Of Confidence He Had In Just About Everything He Was Ever Asked To Say" McClellan. McClellan stepped down from the position in May of 2006, and has since penned a book that will finally allow him to do what he never could as press secretary: tell all.

Public Affairs, who will be publishing the book, has posted this excerpt, which gives one a helping of insight into how McClellan views his years of service:

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.

McClellan's book is titled What Happened, after the question he muttered to himself every night before the clutches of fitful sleep claimed him, and is scheduled for an April 2008 release.

UPDATES:
The Politico notes that McClellan intimated in a March 2007 appearance on Larry King Live that the President "did not originally know about the involvement by his aides."

McClellan: "I spoke with those individuals, ... and those individuals assured me they were not involved in this. ... said what I believed to be true at the time. It was also what the president believed to be true at the time based on assurances that we were both given. Knowing what I know today, I would have never said that back then."

Comments

[leftLibertarian]

DemocRATS the only response I want to hear from you is a Bill of Impeachment for the Criminals Bush and Cheney.

[londonexpat]

And there's gambling in Las Vegas!
It's just amazing that their mercenary ideology requires them to speak out so soon after the crime-knowing full well nothing will really come of it in consequences, except maybe a few more book sales. Pathetic, but it is what we've been conditioned to expect-and sadly, accept.

[imsosure]

Scott McClellan: I Passed Along "False Information" For Bush

Yeah you and everybody else in this administration, so what's new?

[dotmafia]

CNN's ironically misleading headline for this story is:

"Ex-Bush aide: Bush, Cheney involved in misleading media".

CNN misleads by stating that the top White House officials were lying to the media, when in fact:

President Bush and Vice President Cheney were lying to the American public by using McClellan to disseminate false information to the media. The media is nothing but a biased conduit to the masses, and the White House knows this.

The American media is doing its hardest to help shield and protect top White House officials and Republican­/Democrati­c leaders from indictments and investigations into criminality, for what reason I don't know. Probably for patriotic reasons.

It's amazing, and at the same time also not surprising, how the U.S. media all but ignored the reasons why the White House would want to cover up Joseph Wilson's findings regarding the forged Niger documents. It would seem to appear that Italian intelligence agents, The White House and Mossad agents linked to the Vice President's office were responsible for those fake documents in early 2001, created for the White House to use as a reason to go to war with Iraq and Iran. All this cabal needed was a catalyst to set it off, which they knew was coming later that year...

Again, it was the American people who were misled and lied to by this so-called "administration", not the media.
_

[sebocd]

With forward by Larry Craig.

[Quixotic1]

"The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to... help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction"

Translation: he was hired to cover for the administration's lies concerning the WMD's.

One could be excused for not having too much sympathy for someone who would have the morals to place himself in that position in the first place.

One could also be excused for thinking that he was in on it (Plamegate) from the beginning -- and that he is lying now (about the knowledge he had) in order to make himself look better.

You'd like to be able to give these people at least some credit on the rare occasions when they do utter something truthful -- but even when they're telling the truth, chances are they're still lying. lol

And even when they reveal something of importance -- some major fraudulent misconduct or other -- it seems to fall flat on its face and nothing ever comes of it. It seems like we, the American public, are constantly being mocked and disrespected by those charged with representing us. It all just seems like an exercise in futility.

[cafemocha]

Could it be that this time for you, Nancy, to show us again that oh-so-familiar behavior known to us all, "The Flip Flop", to put Impeachment onto the table?!?!?!? It should be real easy to change your mind on this one. You know, like, remember the one about how there is new information that you didn't have before the war - ????? Just don't leave it on the table too long, and take it from the table to the floor of the House, PLEASE!!!!!

[blackjack]

I agree that Bush and his Crime Family has commited TREASON. But lets look at who helped in this TREASON, the CORP:., MAIN STREAM MEDIA, was always there to back up SCOTTY and BUSH just look at what happened from Al GORE to the war in IRAQI who was there to give the helping voice to BUSH AND CHANEY TREASONS act the CORP:., MAIN STREAM MEDIA. Until We the PEOPLE have had a belly full of the CORP:., MEDIA it will continue. We the People have to break up the CORP:., MEDIA. to even start to get back our CONSTITUTION AND BILL of RIGHTS.

[elkabong]

...Entirel­y forgotten or ignored has been what this leak was all about to begin with.

For that, you have to go back and look at what Wilson did in the first place that so enraged or frightened the Vice President and the President.

And that was to go to Niger, one of the poorest nations in Africa, to prove conclusively that there was no truth to a set of forged notes on the letterhead of the Niger embassy in Rome, purporting to be receipts for 400 tons of Niger uranium ore allegedly being sought by Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

Wilson knew those documents were cheap forgeries--the name of the mines official on the papers was someone who hadn't been in office for years--but he went to Niger anyhow, just to make doubly certain that no such purchase attempt had been made.

None had.

So the real question then is, who is behind those forged documents?

There is an interesting story here--and an important mystery to be solved.

As it happens, way back in early 2001 there was a pair of burglaries at the Niger Embassy in Rome and at the home of the Niger ambassador. Police investigating the crimes found that the only things stolen were official stationary and some official stamps, used to make documents official. A cleaning lady and a former member of Italy's intelligence service were arrested for the crimes. They were odd burglaries to be sure, since there is precious little one could use, or sell, such documents for, given the country involved. I mean, it might make sense to steal official stationary from the French Embassy in Rome, which a thief might use to finagle a pass to the Cannes Festival. But Niger?

Jump to October 2001. A few weeks after the 9-11 attacks, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, accompanied by his ministers of defense and intelligence, made a visit to the White House....

http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views07/0306-38.htm

READ THE REST. IT GETS BETTER (if 'better' is the word for it)!

[mbjesq]

The synopsis by the publisher is telling: "With unprecedented candor, one of George W. Bush’s closest aides takes readers behind the scenes of the Bush presidency­..."

We full understand that candor from McClellan -- or any of Bush's press secretaries, for that matter -- would be unprecedented.

There's an assessment here: http://memestreamblog.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/mcclellan-candid-unprecedented/

[Lasserina]

I am so angry. That lying S.O.B. He is only coming forward because he wants to make a buck with this book. You can't trust anything in the book would be truthful. I'm sure he took license to utilize the loose ethics he exhibited as the lying voice and face of the white house. We all knew he was lying when he was lying to us. Now that he wants to make a buck, we are supposed to believe anything this lying liar says? Even if he rakes the white house over the coals, (and I HATE this administration) there is no telling how skewed this piece of crap is. F-U McClellan!!!!!! ARUGH!!!!

[Jonahson]

Sickening!

[whathehell]

Scotty, what the fuck? You’re telling us this now, after Bush and Cheney have burned and slashed everything American. Oh my God Scott, you fucking traitor, Card, Bush, Cheney, Libby, and Rove? You mean Andrew “Our mission is going as planned, keep reading that duck soup goat story to the kids” Card.

This is Christmas come early, and I’d like to thank Scott McClellan for coming forward with information that should shock the American people. Notice the “should” instead of “will”. Although, in my very humble opinion, this major news story will be squashed within a couple of weeks, it does vindicate many huffingtonians, including myself, who have always believed that the axis of evil included those five fucking pricks. This administration has destroyed the economy and has abused the military in ways that are without precedent, and absolutely criminal. They should pay dearly for ruining countless American lives, not to mention, “we don’t do body counts” Muslims who have been slaughtered. My question isn’t ‘how do they sleep at night?’, but rather ‘if there is a God, why doesn’t the mattress burn and incinerate these people?”

[mamacat]

Bush = Treason

[Forest]

Truth prevails. Eventually.