Scott McClellan spills the beans on Bush's war.

[Bill 213]

WASHINGTON - Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that President Bush relied on an aggressive "political propaganda campaign" instead of the truth to sell the Iraq war, and that the decision to invade pushed Bush's presidency "terribly off course.'

 
The Bush White House made "a decision to turn away from candor and honesty when those qualities were most needed" ? a time when the nation was on the brink of war, McClellan writes in the book entitled "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception."

The way Bush managed the Iraq issue "almost guaranteed that the use of force would become the only feasible option."

"In the permanent campaign era, it was all about manipulating sources of public opinion to the president's advantage," McClellan writes.

White House aides seemed stunned by the scathing tone of the book, and Bush press secretary Dana Perino issued a statement that was highly critical of their former colleague.

"Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House," she said. "For those of us who fully supported him, before, during and after he was press secretary, we are puzzled. It is sad - this is not the Scott we knew."

Perino said the reports on the book had been described to Bush, and that she did not expect him to comment. "He has more pressing matters than to spend time commenting on books by former staffers," she said.

The book provoked strong reactions from former staffers as well.

"For him to do this now strikes me as self-serving, disingenuous and unprofessional," Fran Townsend, former head of the White House-based counterterrorism office, told CNN.

Said former top aide Karl Rove, in an interview with Fox News Channel, "If he had these moral qualms, he should have spoken up about them. And frankly I don't remember him speaking up about these things. I don't remember a single word."

Richard Clarke, another former counterterrorism adviser who also came out with a book critical of administration policy, said he could understand McClellan's thinking, however. Clarke told CNN that he, too, was harshly criticized, saying that "I can show you the tire tracks."

McClellan called the Iraq war a "serious strategic blunder," a surprisingly harsh assessment from the man who was at that time the loyal public voice of the White House who had followed Bush to Washington from Texas.

"The Iraq war was not necessary," he concludes. "Waging an unnecessary war is a grave mistake."

McClellan admits that some of his own words from the podium in the White House briefing room turned out to be "badly misguided." But he says he was sincere at the time.

"When words I uttered, believing them to be true, were exposed as false, I was constrained by my duties and loyalty to the president and unable to comment," he said. "But I promised reporters and the public that I would someday tell the whole story of what I knew."

The former press secretary ? the second of four so far in Bush's presidency ? explained his dramatic shift from loyal defender to fierce critic as a difficult act of personal contrition, a way, he wrote, to learn from his mistakes, be true to his Christian faith and become a better person.

"I fell far short of living up to the kind of public servant I wanted to be," McClellan writes. He also blames the media whose questions he fielded, calling them "complicit enablers" in the White House campaign to manipulate public opinion toward the need for war.

McClellan said Bush loyalists will no doubt continue to think the administration's decisions have been correct and its unpopularity undeserved. "I've become genuinely convinced otherwise," he said.

The book is scheduled to go on sale June 1. Quotes from the book were first reported Tuesday night by the Web site Politico, which said it found McClellan's memoir on sale early at a bookstore.

McClellan draws a portrait of Bush as possessing "personal charm, wit and enormous political skill." He said Bush's record as Texas governor and "disarming personality" inspired him to follow him and that his administration early on possessed "seeds of greatness."

But, McClellan said, Bush's unwillingness to admit mistakes and belief in his own spin contributed to turning the president into "not quite the leader I once imagined him to be." He faults Bush for a "lack of inquisitiveness" and "a degree of self-deception that may be psychologically necessary to justify the tactics needed to win the political game."

Bush "convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment," McClellan writes.

[fuckin crazy]

I wonder if conscience is his motivating factor, or future employment.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

Many of the talk radio guys today say that none of the former Bush staff  corroborates his particular accusations.

No one will question that some shady shit happened behind closed doors with the Bush Administration, but why come out with this now?   Financial gain I think.

[TAP]

Many of the talk radio guys today say that none of the former Bush staff  corroborates his particular accusations.

I wonder if he'll see any libel lawsuits?

[fuckin crazy]

Many of the talk radio guys today say that none of the former Bush staff  corroborates his particular accusations.

I've too seen all the interviews, and no one is contradicting his account. Rove said that the press secretary is out of the loop; I guess that means Perino is talking shit for the last couple of days.

I found it somewhat amusing that Faux News contributor Karl Rove, declined to be interviewed on Faux News tonight regarding his  actions in the Plame Affair.

Hmmm, what is he afraid of ... perjury?

[SLCPUNK]

Many of the talk radio guys today say that none of the former Bush staff  corroborates his particular accusations.

No one will question that some shady shit happened behind closed doors with the Bush Administration, but why come out with this now?   Financial gain I think.

How many of Bush's old crew have to come forward before you get it?

According to you, everybody has an agenda, or is in it for the money.

Yea...right. 

[Dr. Blutarsky]

Many of the talk radio guys today say that none of the former Bush staff  corroborates his particular accusations.

No one will question that some shady shit happened behind closed doors with the Bush Administration, but why come out with this now?   Financial gain I think.

How many of Bush's old crew have to come forward before you get it?

According to you, everybody has an agenda, or is in it for the money.

Yea...right. 

You hate Bush, we get it.

[SLCPUNK]

How many people have left this administration and spilled the beans? I've watched one after the other over the years, and every single time, the chumps defend Bush to the end.

Yea Senator, it's all a big conspiracy theory. 

[fuckin crazy]

Many of the talk radio guys today say that none of the former Bush staff  corroborates his particular accusations.

No one will question that some shady shit happened behind closed doors with the Bush Administration, but why come out with this now?   Financial gain I think.

How many of Bush's old crew have to come forward before you get it?

According to you, everybody has an agenda, or is in it for the money.

Yea...right. 

You hate Bush, we get it.

Let me categorically state that "I hate the SOB". Hopefully, he will spend his retirement in a federal prison for his disgusting crimes.

[The Dog]

I wonder if conscience is his motivating factor, or future employment.

probably a bit of both.   

[AxlsMainMan]

I've watched one after the other over the years, and every single time, the chumps defend Bush to the end.

Denial is a defense mechanism' postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence.

The theory of denial was first researched seriously by Anna Freud. She classified denial as a mechanism of the immature mind, because it conflicts with the ability to learn from and cope with reality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial

[SLCPUNK]

It's not just a river in Egypt ya know...

[SLCPUNK]

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan defended his bombshell book about the Bush administration on Thursday, saying he didn't speak up against the overselling of war in Iraq at the time because he, like other Americans, gave the president the benefit of the doubt.

"My beliefs were different then. I believed the president when he talked about the grave and gathering danger from Iraq," McClellan, who was deputy press secretary during the lead-up to the war, told NBC's "Today" show.

McClellan, a longtime loyalist who worked for Bush when he was Texas governor, said his initial misgivings about a rush to war were offset by his affection for the president and respect for his foreign policy advisers. It was easy to believe, he said, because the president wasn't consciously trying to inflate the threat of Iraq unleashing weapons of mass destruction.

"He came to convince himself of that," McClellan said of Bush.

In hindsight, McClellan views the war as a mistake by a president swept up by his own propaganda and a grand plan of seeding democracy in the Middle East by overturning Saddam Hussein's regime.

McClellan says Bush and his aides became so wrapped up in trying to shape the story to their political advantage that they ignored facts that didn't fit the picture. He blames it on a "permanent campaign culture" that pervades Washington.

Bush began his presidency intending to change that culture, but instead got caught up in it, McClellan said.

"I'm disappointed that things didn't turn out the way we all hoped they would turn out," he said. "We all had high hopes coming in."

McClellan said he grew "increasingly dismayed and disillusioned" during his final year as White House press secretary, and pinpointed the CIA leak case ? and what it revealed about Bush's role in releasing classified information about Iraq to the press ? as his tipping point. McClellan was White House press secretary from May 2003 to April 2006.

McClellan said he hoped his book would help change the culture that has turned governing into a never-ending campaign, and said that was why he was willing to weather the storm of anger it would bring.

As the book ? "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception" _vaulted to No. 1 on Amazon.com's best-seller list Wednesday, Republican critics dismissed him as a turncoat, a sellout and a disgruntled former employee. The White House called the book puzzling and sad.

Former White House counselor Dan Bartlett offered an immediate rebuke to McClellan's interview and his allegations of pro-war propaganda.

"I would not personally participate in a process in which we are misleading the American people, and that's the part that I think is hurting so many of his former colleagues," Bartlett said, also on speaking on "Today." "To think that he is making such a striking allegation against his former colleagues, to me, is beyond the pale."

Speaking earlier Thursday to reporters in Sweden, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also rejected McClellan's allegations that the Bush administration misled the American public into war.

Rice would not comment specifically on charges in the book, but said Bush was honest and forthright about the reasons for the war. She also said she remained convinced that toppling Saddam was right and necessary.

"The president was very clear about the reasons for going to war," she told reporters in Stockholm, where she is attending an international conference on Iraq.

McClellan writes that Rice, who was national security adviser earlier in Bush's presidency, "was more interested in figuring out where the president stood and just carrying out his wishes while expending only cursory effort on helping him understand all the considerations and potential consequences" of war.

McClellan identified the CIA leak case as the low point of his job.

He was ordered to say from the press room podium that White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were not involved in leaking CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to the press. Later a criminal investigation revealed that they were.

"I blame myself for putting myself in the position of going to the podium and passing along information I didn't know was false, but later learned that it was," McClellan said.

And McClellan recalled a day in April 2006, when the unfolding perjury case against Libby revealed that the president had secretly declassified portions of a 2002 intelligence report about Iraq's weapons capabilities to help his aides deflect criticism that his case for war was weak. Some of the most high-profile criticism was coming from Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson.

The president was leaving an event in North Carolina, McClellan recalled, and as they walked to Air Force One a reporter yelled out a question: Had the president, who had repeatedly condemned the selective release of secret intelligence information, enabled Scooter Libby to leak classified information to The New York Times to bolster the administration's arguments for war?

McClellan took the question to the president, telling Bush: "He's saying you yourself were the one that authorized the leaking of this information."

"And he said, 'Yeah, I did.' And I was kind of taken aback," McClellan said.

"For me I came to the decision that at that point I needed to look for a way to move on, because it had undermined, I think, a lot of what we had said."

[SLCPUNK]

Wexler: McClellan Must Testify Under Oath Before House Judiciary Committee
Former White House Aide's Revelations Make Out Case for Obstruction of Justice by Rove and Libby in Valerie Plame Case


(Washington, DC) Today Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) called for former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan to appear before the House Judiciary Committee to testify under oath regarding the devastating revelations made in his new book on the Bush Administration?s deliberate efforts to mislead the American people into the Iraq War.

?The admissions made by Scott McClellan in his new book are earth-shattering and allege facts to establish that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby ? and possibly Vice President Cheney - conspired to obstruct justice by lying about their role in the Plame Wilson matter and that the Bush Administration deliberately lied to the American people in order to take us to war in Iraq. Scott McClellan must now appear before the House Judiciary Committee under oath to tell Congress and the American people how President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and White House officials deliberately orchestrated a massive propaganda campaign to sell the war in Iraq to the American people.?

?The allegations by this former top White House aide ? that Rove and Libby deliberately coordinated their stories in order to obstruct justice in the Plame case, that the President deliberately disregarded contradictory evidence related to Iraq, should outrage every American and Congress must respond by initiating immediate aggressive oversight starting with an appearance by McClellan before the House Judiciary Committee. Any continued obstruction by this Administration to prevent White House officials from appearing before Congress cannot be tolerated by this Congress in the face of these shocking revelations.?

Congressman Wexler has led a nationwide campaign in favor of holding impeachment hearings for Vice-President Dick Cheney. Congressman Wexler is Chairman of the Europe Subcommittee and a senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Judiciary Committee.

[SLCPUNK]

These are serious allegations, and it's time to get him under oath.

[pilferk]

In reading the excerpts, it seems Bush was so concerned with his "legacy" that he just flat out ignored, or refused to consider, anything that might call into question the conclusion he'd already reached.  And he seemed willing to do almost anything to fuel his perception of what his "legacy" should be.

He WANTED to do this, because he thought, ultimatley, the democracy in the middle east would be his "legacy".

Looks like what happened there WILL, in fact, be his legacy....just not exactly the one he envisioned.

[pilferk]

These are serious allegations, and it's time to get him under oath.

Bush will just claim executive priviledge....and that will be the end of that.

We won't even get an inkling of what acutally happened here until Bush is no longer the standing president....at least not from those that actually worked within the administration.   We've already seen this happen.....

I would hope it would change...but I seriously doubt it will.

[SLCPUNK]

I mean McClellan under oath.

[pilferk]

I mean McClellan under oath.

I know...but when they tried to call White House staffers to testify (current and former)...Bush claimed executive priviledge and refused to allow them to do it.  Remember..with the attorney's getting fired.

I can't IMAGINE he wouldn't do the same, with everything covered during McClellan's tenure as press secretary.

Edit: The issue would be one of precedent....the situations are vastly different..but I would think the dispute would likely end up in the courts and be held up until AFTER Bush was out of office (and his executive priviledge would lapse).  I think the courts would likely compel McClellen to testify, overruling Bush's priviledge, but I think Bush will try to invoke it, to cover his ass.

[SLCPUNK]

I forgot that.