Scott McClellan Book: White House Saw Manuscript Before Publication

On Friday it was confirmed that Scott McClellan's book, which has received stern criticism from the White House, had been delivered to the administration in advance of its publication. MSNBC reported that it had been delivered at least a month before, as a necessary review of classified information. As McClellan himself explained in a Q&A on Washingtonpost.com:

The White House reviewed the final manuscript for classification and privilege issues. After the review I met with some members of the White House counsel's office at their request to discuss the review. As I expected, there were no issues relating to classified information. They did bring up some issues relating to what they might consider executive privilege, including presidential conversations and conversations between senior advisers to the president.

Comments

[873450]

George Bush hasn't finished reading "My Pet Goat" yet and he's not about to let anyone interrupt him now that he's getting to the good parts.

[LeftLeanWing]

That's the part where the PetGoat finally Puts Food on His Family and then enrolls young Billy in a 'NoKid Left Behind" school.

[nodonjuan]

lol

[heal57]

Nobody at the White House even read McClellan's manuscript in April. Stupid is stupid; and this White House gets the gold medal in Moronism.


Independents for Obama '08

[JohnnieP]

Basically, the truth hurts. It cuts like a knife.

[realpolitic]

Does anyone in this White House even read? Now if Scotty would have prepared a video like bin Laden does the White House may have responded.

[Anonani]

They had the book in advance of release. They had time to prepare their talking points. They tried to suggest that "Scotty" had lost is mind at worst and at best lost his way. In either case, he has validated the greatest fears and suppositions of the public. What is done in the dark shall come into the light.

[Norge]

If they actually had a copy of the manuscript a month before it was published, then they had no interest
in stopping it as long as he included "The Disclaimer" which rendered his book just another subjective
read with no legal foundations for prosecuting any of the persons mentioned in his book.

They wanted him out of the job and paid him off with the ok to publish his subjective experience book.

[realpolitic]

All experience is subjective, which does not discount the truth of the what he is saying. How could the White House stop what he was saying unless they claimed "national security" and then he could sue to get it published anyway and they would have to support their claim. His description of the White House as being in permanent campaign mold is hardly a national security concern.

Any prosecutions will not come from what he said in the book, but will come from his testimony to Congress when asked to testify. From there Congress will decide what direction to take. If others then counter his testimony, they may be held in contempt.

Clearly, McClellan was trying to unburden himself at great cost. The cost was giving up a chance at securing lucrative employment in the future from Republican cronies. Scott still thought he wanted to tell where the administration went wrong and how it told outright lies in the Plame outing. If Scott McClellan decided he did not want to live with the lies of the administration and thus being a facilitator to those lies, then he is working toward being a moral person.

[realpolitic]

Sorry, "permanent campaign mode" and not "mold."

[massive]

Bush was probably slipped an advance, to which he said, "I can't take time to read these words - I gotta get my Iran war on!"

[Miket53]

It's unfortunate McClellan had to stoop so low. He would never be in a position to write a book if Bush didn't give him a job.

[realpolitic]

Yes, I guess the cost of working at the White House is having to live with its lies and its extra-constitutional activities the rest of your life. I guess the true hero is Scooter Libby who never said a word to incriminate his fellow conspirators.

The same can be said of Enron or even the mafia. Why should anyone come forward to report illegality because they should repay being hired with endless loyalty and silence? That is a criminal mentality, almost a street level gang mentality of never rat on friends, no matter what the consequences.

[Gasparilla]

Yeah, that McClellan is really stooping low, huh? Scooter and his pals deliberately outed an undercover agent and put her contacts overseas at risk and made future contacts hesitate to deal with us, because their cooperation with us could get them in trouble.

[PennLawyer]

If the White House couldn't prevent publication/distribution on grounds of executive privilege, I question whether they can bar his testimony to Congress on those grounds either.

[broadsword]

If you're interested in defending the administration, you've got good cover with executive privilege arguments.

If, however, Congress wants you to testify, and you want to testify against the administration, there's not a fucking thing they can do about it.

[owiseone]

The White House probably gave this book hardly a glance, thinking little Scottie wasn't smart enough to have noticed much. My guess is that nobody took it seriously, barely looked at it.

Or, maybe Bush is on notice that Congress, military leaders, intelligence agencies are set to impeach if he missteps in any way; perhaps Scottie had inside help in getting the book out? Could Bush have been neutered?

Remember when the Dixie Chicks were nearly black-balled for having spoken publicly early on about the deception being fed US citizens to sell the war? Most people were AFRAID to speak up. Afraid of the administration, afraid of seeming unpatriotic; after all half of the country was driving around with the mindless slogan "Support our Troops" stickers on their vehicles; even if the thought crossed their minds that maybe it was wrong to put our troops in danger and to order them to commit the administration's crimes, few spoke out. We were operating on fear.

There's safety in numbers.

Bring on more whistleblowers. Let's blow this administration right out of the water. It'd be their Grand Finale!

[barackobama4prez]

Liberal, Left, or Leaning ---This is why the repugnates will lose this year:

"The liberals have devised an amazing number of new lunacies in the two years since the last edition of the Handbook appeared. But here are all the concise conservative counterpoints you need to slice and dice nutty liberal arguments for:

Amnesty for illegal immigrants
Giving constitutional rights to terrorism suspects
Global Warming hysteria
Waving the white flag in Iraq
Snuffing out talk radio by resurrecting the Fairness Doctrine
Believing 9/11 was an "inside job"
Imposing same-sex marriage by activist judges

Thomas S. Winter
Editor in Chief, HUMAN EVENTS

[RichardD]

Scott McClellan has done America, and the World, a great service by describing as a person on the scene what a vacuous White House it was, and has been, under George W. Bush.
He is not a real or bona fide leader in any way. He is a toady, a puppet whose strings are pulled by others. He may have brains, but it is a moot point. Seldom does he exercise them.
Furthermore, he is quite likely to be charged with being a War Criminal after he leaves his office. He will not be able to travel widely outside America, and he will be excoriated throughout the political world of the planet. He, himself, represents just how far America's image has fallen in so few years.
Like others of his ilk, it may well come to nothing in his lifetime, but he will be seen to be the man he has been. Feckless, evil, vindictive and uncaring.

[msmaggie]

Think it would be an interesting exercise to re-read Paul O'Neill's book. Talk about prescient.

[realpolitic]

Yes, that was a great book and was the first account that Bush wanted to attack Iraq almost from the first days of his presidency.

[Mercedes]

The two things that are making me sick about all this is:

1) The Main Stream Media. There used to be such a thing as Professionalism, and Journalism and hunting for the TRUTH. Now, it's "don't say anything about the Truth or you'll lose your job. So just keep feeding the Masses what your Billionaire bosses want them to know, and the Hell with TRUTH".

2) These so-called "Christians" and their Prosperity Gospel and their Hypocritical ways. I always was taught that Jesus said to "Love your Enemies. Do Good to those who Despise you. If he wants your cloak, give him also your coat" (credit to the Bible). "You cannot serve two masters-you either serve God or you serve Money" (credit to the Bible). These religious fanatics are really doing the Devil's work and they don't even know it. They think that Jesus likes when they condemn Liberals and anyone else who doesn't follow what their pastor preaches and that Bush is doing Good by invading the "infidel" Islamists in Iraq.

[barackobama4prez]

Compassionate Conservatism and Christ-like Christianity go out the door when we need to "force democracy" in the mid-east.

McWar: "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran". He will never surrender.

Cheney: Once we kill all of them we'll be seen as liberators.

Bush: Talking to terrorist enemies is appeasement.

TALK ABOUT NUT JOBS. Throw the bums out.

[AdobePhsyko]

Secrecy is a hallmark of any Dicktatorship.
(that's not a spelling error)

[AxelDC]

They've had the book for a month and the best response they can come up with is that they are "puzzled"???

[barackobama4prez]

Perino is a liar. She's sticking to the lies, even while Scotty is trying to get delivered from the pits of hell.

Down with women like Condi Rice, Dana Perino & Hillary Clinton!

We need more Sebelius' and McCaskils!

[Braves71]

Umm. So did the Books in Print reviewer. Only, it was February '08. The words
used in the written review were 'candid' , 'candor' and 'liabilities' among others. One of the
libraries in my area has had it on order since 12/07. You KNOW there were
galleys and review copies.

The media and the White House were taken by storm last week?