McClellan: Bush Should Have Fired Rove After Plame Leak (VIDEO)

President Bush broke his promise to the country by refusing to fire aide Karl Rove for leaking a CIA agent's identity, said Scott McClellan, the president's chief spokesman for almost three years.

"I think the president should have stood by his word and that meant Karl should have left," McClellan said Sunday in a broadcast interview about his new tell-all book, a scathing rebuke of the White House under Bush's leadership.

McClellan now acknowledges he felt burned by Rove, Bush's top political adviser, and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff. He said Rove and Libby assured him they were not involved in leaking CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, and he repeated those assurances to reporters.

In fact, Rove and Libby did help leak Plame's identity, as confirmed in a later criminal investigation. Libby had resigned by then, but Rove remained in office and eventually stepped down on his terms in August 2007.

"I think the president should have stood by the word that we said, which was that if you were involved in this in any way, then you would no longer be in this administration. And Karl was involved in it," McClellan said.

White House press secretary Dana Perino declined comment Sunday.

Keep reading here.

Watch McClellan on Meet the Press:

Comments

[JAMES GORMAN]

AMEN AND SEVERAL ALLELUIA'S--HAGEE GOT THE AXE--O.K. TO GO AFTER CATHOLICS,
BUT BY GOD YOU BETTER NOT BOTHER JEWS--THAT IS MC CAIN'S "MESSAGE.:
BUT THE BEST NEWS IS TO HEAR SOMEONE FROM THE SWAMP==GREAT SCOTT--SOUNDING
THE TRUTH THAT ROVE SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED--SIMPLY BECAUSE BUSH SAID SO--ANYONE
INVOLVED WITH" FAIR GAME UPON VALERIE" WAS SUPPOSED TO BE PUNISHED. SOME PUNISHMENT--A PRESIDENTIAL PARDON. IT HELPS TO JUST FOCUS WHAT ALL AMERICANS HAVE NOW GRASPED FULLY--WE HAVE HAD 8 YEARS OF LIES THAT THREATEN WHAT A REPUBLIC IS FROM CHENEY'S PLAN TO MAKE THE PRESIDENT A NON-CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCH---­J.MC C GORMAN

[DeWayne]

McClellan it is evident is yet another of many nails in the coffin of the Cabal called the Bush-Admin­istration.
The important point is that the Cabal rulling over America has censored all media and dialog about the "Congressional" candidates that could return America to a Constitutional-Gov of Law, and has concentrated instead on three Presidential candidates of whom there is absolutely no difference.
America by now should realize we have a Fascist-di­ctatorship that will not allow US-Constitution or US-Law to remove them as a controlling dictatorship, America today needs concentrate entirely upon CONGRESSIONAL candidates that will remove these Fascists from control.

[Cowtippin]

What I find really interesting is the fact that G.W. Bush trusted Karl Rove enough to shape the vast majority of the current white house policies. Now 7 plus years into his term we are far worse off than ever before..an­d the funny part is that the far right republican/Fox News party still considers this guy some great political scholar. Now Rove looks even dumber than G.W

[Luv2Purple]

IMPEACHMENT TODAY! This is the WORST - MOST CORRUPT administration in American history. Although IMPEACHMENT is too good for this group - they must be held accountable for their CRIMES against the Constitution and our country. George W. Bush has RAPED the treasury..­....he has turned over our treasure to his friends like Halliburton, Blackwater etc. George W. Bush has TORTURED the Constitution he swore to uphold - IMPEACHMENT in the penalty for this crime! George W. Bush has PLUNDERED the goodwill of our nation and put us at risk. IMPEACHMENT for the war criminal, torturer, liar in chief. IMPEACHMENT for the good of the country!!!

[hoopesaz]

Why is Mclellan such a liberal superstar all of the sudden? By many accounts (including a story in the Washington Post today) it appears that his book was a boring tell nothing until it got in the hands of liberal editors who essentially rewrote the book for him.

Why would a man with such character do that? For the money. He sold out for the money because he knew there was a raging appetite for such a story from the left.

I too believe that Bush is a horrible president and that he has taken us back 15 years at least. But I'm not willing to believe every tainted word published about the man simply because it makes me feel justified in my assessment.

[barackobama4prez]

What, Perino declined to comment? HAHAHAHAHH­AHAAA....t­hat just SCREAMS busted.

[BADEN]

Another "DUH" moment from BUSHCOland­..

McClellan basically called Bush delusional.
Literally.

Mental Illness - the last bastion of an out of control POTUS.

Our own little grizzled Napoleon heading for his Alba in Paraguay.
Can't come soon enough, if they aren't willing to have cuffs waiting for him after Jan 20, 2009.

[remedy]

Hate to tell Scott but leaking a cia agents name is a crime.. as a matter of fact one the highest crimes, treason. I think old man Bush pretty much laid out the lowness of this act, although coming from him it was retoric cause no family is more guilty of treason that this family. Prescott, George H, and lil GW.

[nyboomer]

Like most laws this one has some provisions that exclude anyone who unwittingly exposes an undercover agent. Had Fitzgerald been able to indict and convict either Libby or Rove in this matter, he would have done so. Libby's indictment was based entirely on his being dishonest and less than forthcoming.

Novak should have been indicted. He asked the CIA about the matter but was told not to publish. His retort was, they were not sufficiently firm in asking him not to publish. I suppose if they had stated outright if he published they'd have him arrested and make sure no bail was possible, he might not have published.

Novak knowingly and willingly betrayed an undercover agent of this country in an effort to help political freinds. I don't know what argument persuaded Fitzgerald not to indict him and anyone else he spoke with and gave him information about Mrs. Wilson. Certainly his assertion that she instigated Wilson going to Niger was baseless and he had to know that before he published.

[sa]

america should have fired bush.

.

[nonofyabusiness]

Amen......

[RTIII]

Tomorrow there will be a vote in San Francisco. There is a Democrat trying to win Nancy's seat; Shirley Golub.

IF YOU ARE IN THE EIGHTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT IN SAN FRANCISCO - and either an independent or Democrat - BE SURE TO VOTE TOMORROW FOR SHIRLEY GOLUB!

[Peddler]

McCellan's decision to reveal all can be very risky. My mother always said, what goes around comes around....­.....He is shooting now at all the political targets...­......but should be cautious that he doesn't become his worst nightmare.­........

[TheEmptinessOfTruthiness]

I would say McClellan did far from reveal all. Rather he said the bare minimum he could.

[TheEmptinessOfTruthiness]

Below. (hit the button too soon)

I mean that is all he could say without opening up charges of libel or slander.

[JeanPaulSatire]

Risky for whom? Think beyond the personal impact it might have and instead think about the impact that dissemination of the truth (or some more accurate version of it than we've been given thus far) prior to choosing our next president will have.

Surely a sacrificed political career (a mea culpa?) is a small price to be paid for the good that such candor provides.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

Bob Dole’s underwear is really in a bunch, calling Scott a trader and every thing; I thought he was more honorable than that. The question is, a trader to who the lying neo-cons, the GOP, or the country. There is little that McClellen has said that hasn’t been said by previous Whitehouse staffers and reporters except Scottie’s account adds weight to previous accounts. So Mr. Dole who is Scott betraying, certainly not the country, we all knew that Cheney, Rove, Addington and Scooter Levy care little about the welfare of the nation as opposed to their own perverted agendas, as for George Bush he is a mark who did to much Wild Turkey and Cocaine, installed by a biased Supreme Court to carrier it all out. Mr. Dole, go back to your Viagra, and go away, your simply irreverent, all though the Gay Old Party might still might listen to your dribble, no one else dose. I believe resignation’s are in order, at least Nixon did that much.

[Panglos]

Check out this take at the WaPo, titled "Will The Real Scott McClellan Please Stand Up?":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/01/AR2008060101922_pf.html

This article, written by McClellan's former deputy Trent Duffy, seemed a searing indictment­...until Duffy got to the part where he wrote

"Maybe it is better to appease terrorists and let them fight us here instead of taking them on overseas. Maybe we should return our public education system to factories of mediocrity run by teachers unions instead of demanding and delivering educational excellence for our children. Maybe we should let the government ration health care and get between us and our doctors. And maybe we should raise taxes, punish individual enterprise and destroy the incentive for hard work to pay for more government programs."

At that point the article can be seen for what it really is: ideologica­lly-driven screed. To such a fanatic, especially on the right, cause trumps truth. Mr. Duffy's words cannot be trusted enough to be taken seriously.

[edwcorey]

This guy talks out of his anus. He says elsewhere that Bush knew and approved of the leak. But he doesn't say that Bush should have fired himself--which would have been the most positive and effective thing Bush did in eight years.

[cranialknowledge]

I was just about to say precisely the same thing.

Why isn't the call for impeachment being sounded now??? Mind-boggling.

[jrterrier]

the problem with people like mcclellan is that they want it both ways. when exactly did he decide that Bush was so bad. why couldn't he figure it out during the 6 or 7 years that he was inside the white house. it seems to me that he saw the light only after the paychecks from bush stopped coming. it doesn't invalidate completely what he writes, but it does make the whole book suspect.

[WasteNJ]

It's vindicating to hear McClellan speak about the crimes of this White House with such nonchalance.

I've been telling people about the abuses of the Bush administration for so long, you start to wonder if you're going crazy. Now that this info is in the light of day, it's almost surreal; all the stories we knew were true but could never be confirmed or proven have been validated.­.. at least that's how it appears.

So now what?

[fcsakes]

I am totally excited about living in a country where top presidential advisers AND the president can get away with treason, yet another president has a (heterosexual) affair, lies about it and the entire country gets to be hostage to republican indignity that such a *crime* can be committed while it holds us up for obscenely expensive hearings to impeach a president for getting his rocks off.

I don't think hypocritical is strong enough a word.