Scott McClellan Lashes Out At Bush White House In New Book

May 27, 2008 · Filed Under Politics

We’ve heard rumors about former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s new book titled, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” for some time now.

Just last November McClellan’s publisher released an excerpt from the book that seemed to implicate the Bush Administration in the Valerie Flame Plame leak case.

Just a few days after the controversy erupted that same publisher told the media that McClellan’s statements were being taken out of context and misinterpreted.

Today we learn a very different story. This according to The Politico, which managed to get a copy of the book ahead of its Sunday release.

It seems that excerpts released last year about McClellan’s book were indeed accurate after all.

Here are some of the highlights:

- McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.

- 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.

I’m actually pretty surprised McClellan came out with such strong allegations given his long friendship with President Bush. Some of his assertions are standard liberal talking points which is odd coming from a long time Republican.

We now know that the Plame leak originated from Richard Armitage who leaked it to Robert Novak, so that pretty much kills McClellan’s credibility on that issue.

I’m going to read the entire book before I make any judgments, but it sounds like he may be a bitter ex-White House insider with an ax to grind.

You can buy Scott’s book HERE

-Chris Jones