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Exclusive: McClellan whacks Bush, White House
By MIKE ALLEN | 5/27/08 6:18 PM EST

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a surprisingly scathing memoir to be published next week that President Bush “veered terribly off course,” was not “open and forthright on Iraq,” and took a “permanent campaign approach” to governing at the expense of candor and competence.

Among the most explosive revelations in the 341-page book, titled “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” (Public Affairs, $27.95):

• McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war. Gee, no shit?

• He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.

• He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.”

• The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.

• McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

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McClellan repeatedly embraces the rhetoric of Bush's liberal critics and even charges: “If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq.

“The collapse of the administration’s rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. … In this case, the ‘liberal media’ didn’t live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.”

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Originally posted by Eric:
Too little, far FAR too late, IMO. Too bad he didn't grow a conscience back BEFORE he had a book deal.

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Originally posted by rue:
Wouldn't you know it - all those ex-Bush appointees end up trashing Bush - from ex-Sec Tres Paul O'Neill to Colin Powell to Ari Fleischer and the many in-betweens.

Yeah, Bush sure knows how to pick 'em.

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Originally posted by rue:
Wouldn't you know it - all those ex-Bush appointees end up trashing Bush...

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It's called "cashing in". A very popular ploy used by those who claim that all they want to do is serve the country - do all they can to do what's best for the American people, when in fact, all they want is a lucrative book deal. I suspect we will see others.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Scott most likely has memos, tapes, etc. from his years at the WH and can back up everything he says.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
A lot of generals, some Cabinet-level staff (Clarke, O'Neil) and several underlings left the WH mid-career and said the same things about Bush. So what do you say about them? They were lying?

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Clark and O'Neil? Can't speak about everyone...but yes those two were lying.

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
... Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Petraeus, Bush - they're all a bunch of traitorous scum
Mike

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

... Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Petraeus, Bush - they're all a bunch of traitorous scum

Mike

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Gen Petraeus is now "traitorous scum"?



What does that make you?



You write something like that, and all you do is show the world your own ignorant hatred.

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

It's funny to see how many people, who just LOVED li'l Scotty back in the day, turn on him so rapidly now, claiming they've always hated him, and he's always been the enemy, and that the man whose job it was to make Bush look GOOD is now only trying to make him look BAD. It's as if they don't even remember what they were told to believe the day before yesterday, when Scotty was beloved.

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Originally posted by Kirkules:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

It's funny to see how many people, who just LOVED li'l Scotty back in the day, turn on him so rapidly now, claiming they've always hated him, and he's always been the enemy, and that the man whose job it was to make Bush look GOOD is now only trying to make him look BAD. It's as if they don't even remember what they were told to believe the day before yesterday, when Scotty was beloved.

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Kwicko, I realise that ninety percent of the BS you come up with is pulled strait out of your ass , but this is one of your stupidest statements yet. I have never heard anyone in the media or in politics ever say they thought Mcclellan was a good press secretary, and I have certainly have never said so. In fact all have said the opposite, requiring President Bush to come to his defense on more than one occasion. President Bush is loyal to a fault when it comes to his staff, and you would think it might be reciprocated by this no talent jerk. The other thing no one seems to consider is that he was Press Secretary, hardly in a position to see the policy decision making process first hand.

Your comments are so consistently idiotic, I sometimes wonder if your not really a conservative republican trying to make all liberals look stupid. If so, keep up the good work.

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BUSH: I, first of all, I thank Scott for his service to our country. I don't know whether or not the press corps realizes this, but his is a challenging assignment dealing with you all on a regular basis. And I thought he handled his assignment with class, integrity. He really represents, you know, the best of his family, our state and our country.
It's going to be hard to replace Scott. But nevertheless, he's made the decision, and I accept it.
One of these days, he and I are going to be rocking in chairs in Texas talking about the good old days of his time as the press secretary. And I can assure you, I will feel the same way then that I feel now, that I can say to Scott, job well done.
MCCLELLAN: Thank you, sir.
BUSH: You bet. Appreciate you.

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Originally posted by rue:
Tony Snow 26th White House Press Secretary In office May 8, 2006 – September 14, 2007.

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Originally posted by deadlockvictim:
speaking of Snow.... ever notice the resemblance to this guy....?

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Originally posted by SignyM:
But there were people ahead of McClellan who quit or lost their WH jobs who said the same thing, and that includes about a half-dozen generals plus Richard Clarke and Scy Treasury Paul O'Neill (plus the anonymous transom informant). Hero says that THOSE people "lied" too. So Hero, I noticed you never DID prove your statement. I'll bet you don't even know what Clarke and ONeill said, do ya now?

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Let's party like it's 1929.

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Originally posted by SignyM:

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Clark and O'Neil? Can't speak about everyone...but yes those two were lying.

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Prove it.

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We will get into a horrid argument again but the big fallacy that keeps being touted here is that at any point X in the timeline there is an obviously right and an obviously wrong answer.

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Originally posted by Hero:

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Originally posted by SignyM:

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Clark and O'Neil? Can't speak about everyone...but yes those two were lying.

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Prove it.

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I'm pretty sure there's video on youtube...so you can see their lips moving...

H

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Originally posted by Kwicko:


Bush is a liar. Always has been, always will be. It's proven. It's undeniable fact.

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