"McClellan whacks Bush, White House"

[[R-MOD]Saobh]

After being the White House Press Secretary for 3 years and usually presented as being a friends with Bush, I doubt McClellan will be invited to Bush's ranch this summer.
I'll be interesting to see how this plays out on both candidates election strategies in the coming weeks.

[Remember to debate by staying on-topic with a constructive attitude, thank you.]

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.

• 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.

A few reporters were offered advance copies of the book, with the restriction that their stories not appear until Sunday, the day before the official publication date. Politico declined and purchased “What Happened” at a Washington bookstore.

The eagerly awaited book, while recounting many fond memories of Bush and describing him as “authentic” and “sincere,” is harsher than reporters and White House officials had expected.

McClellan was one of the president’s earliest and most loyal political aides, and most of his friends had expected him to take a few swipes at his former colleague in order to sell books but also to paint a largely affectionate portrait.

Instead, McClellan’s tone is often harsh. He writes, for example, that after Hurricane Katrina, the White House “spent most of the first week in a state of denial,” and he blames Rove for suggesting the photo of the president comfortably observing the disaster during an Air Force One flyover. McClellan says he and counselor to the president Dan Bartlett had opposed the idea and thought it had been scrapped.
See Also

But he writes that he later was told that “Karl was convinced we needed to do it — and the president agreed.”

“One of the worst disasters in our nation’s history became one of the biggest disasters in Bush’s presidency. Katrina and the botched federal response to it would largely come to define Bush’s second term,” he writes. “And the perception of this catastrophe was made worse by previous decisions President Bush had made, including, first and foremost, the failure to be open and forthright on Iraq and rushing to war with inadequate planning and preparation for its aftermath.”

McClellan, who turned 40 in February, was press secretary from July 2003 to April 2006. An Austin native from a political family, he began working as a gubernatorial spokesman for then-Gov. Bush in early 1999, was traveling press secretary for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign and was chief deputy to Press Secretary Ari Fleischer at the beginning of Bush’s first term.

“I still like and admire President Bush,” McClellan writes. “But he and his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war. … In this regard, he was terribly ill-served by his top advisers, especially those involved directly in national security.”
...

Read pages 2 & 3 here :
-Exclusive: McClellan whacks Bush, White House - Mike Allen - Politico.com

[SiN|ScarFace]

Yay, more people getting paid for their part in this blunder. He and many others can say Bush was misleading (sugar coated version of lie) and get paid to say it and still nothing happens to GWB/Dick/Rove/Powell/Tennant ect. Good times for those guys, gettin PAID!

[ArmedDrunk&Angry]

That is all the book is really about, getting paid.
Another Clark, looking for his "legacy".
Good for him, I hope he makes lots of money, but I doubt he will last long.
Those 15min go by so fast.

[stewdad]

Don't be surprised if it turns out McClellan has little, if anything, to do with writing the more controversial passages. Already the term "ghost writer" is being bandied about.

[ArmedDrunk&Angry]

I think a more appropriate title might be " McCellan wacks off at the White House".
Another shill exposed.
I hope the Dems paid him cash and not an IOU on a cabinet post.

Townhall.com::McClellan on Plame::By Robert D. Novak

[Defiyur]

It's so predictable how people try to discredit McClellan and try to paint him as somebody who went crazy or is in need of mental help. All the "I'm so puzzled, confused saddened, disappointed" etc etc. Many just can't bring themselves to face the TRUTH. What McClellan said is essentially what MANY have already been saying for YEARS now. This is not shocking to those who already believe this to be the case. To some who still can't bring themselves to fathom it is extremely uncomfortable and rather than face it they attempt to discredit. This is nothing new people. It's not just McClellan reporting this kind of stuff. You can watch "bush's war" on PBS site if you want. The list goes on but I can't even remember them all at this point.... Some it seems will settle for nothing less than a written confession from bush n crew. Well that isn't going to happen so you'll have to use your own judgment (unless you prefer to let the media tell you what you should think ).

[Defiyur]

Originally Posted by ArmedDrunk&Angry

Townhall.com::McClellan on Plame::By Robert D. Novak

Townhall.com::Video Player

Buchanan backs up a major point of what McClellan says and the fox host essentially ignores that and talks about something else. CLASSIC CLASSIC fox tactic. They see the bullet ready to hit it's target and they angle the shield so it glances off and is forgotten about. HOW MANY FOX DUMMIES REALIZE BUCHANAN JUST AGREED WITH MCCLELLAN???? Classic mind control tactic at work people, it's time to wake up. For the sake of our country please wake up.

[ArmedDrunk&Angry]

So your "proof" is PBS ?
You know that they lean so far to the left they need a prop-rod to hold them up right ?

The point is that he is full of sh t and just trying to make a buck.
He admits the book was "tweaked" by his editors and yet reveals nothing new and often things that while not documented, conflict with many other accounts.

He uses all the left's code words and sounds just like a Democrat in 04.

If you think MANY people agree, then don't worry, Obama will be elected in November and we will be attacked again by September 11 of 2009.

Then we will run away from the ME, gas will skyrocket and the sky will fall, not necessarily in that order.

But you can vote for change or a vague shift to the left of our current course but you can't rewrite history.
If he felt that strongly he should have left.
But he didn't and neither did he get any buyers for his book until it was tweaked and released in an election year.

Bush made numerous mistakes and most are well documented but that isn't the focus of the book or even most critics.
Instead it is vague, important sounding BS that does nothing to change the situation we are in or even truly shed light on it.

Why is it when we don't believe some line of bullsh t you lefties are peddling then we are all just brainwashed media drones ?

I see the evidence of the Clinton's foreign policy every day, or rather I see what is no longer there because we did not fight for ourselves and pretended that if we gave them money and acted nice it would all go away.

Well it didn't and that is well documented as well and now we have to choose ....racist radical or old warrior gone semi lefty.

But nobody who checks believe McCellan's story is accurate, even on PBS.

[ArmedDrunk&Angry]

Originally Posted by Defiyur

Townhall.com::Video Player

Buchanan backs up a major point of what McClellan says and the fox host essentially ignores that and talks about something else. CLASSIC CLASSIC fox tactic. They see the bullet ready to hit it's target and they angle the shield so it glances off and is forgotten about. HOW MANY FOX DUMMIES REALIZE BUCHANAN JUST AGREED WITH MCCLELLAN???? Classic mind control tactic at work people, it's time to wake up. For the sake of our country please wake up.

Wake up to what exactly ?

That Islam is the religion of peace and if America was just nicer then they wouldn't breed extremists who kill civilians for their god ?

That North Korea can't be bribed ?

That Iran can't be bribed ?

Wake up to the fact that there really are dragons out there and sometimes you have to slay them.

Al Queda may not have been in Iraq in 2001 but they moved there in 2003.
So the people who attacked us got their ass kicked and we got rid of a dangerous dictator who was ready to build WMDs as soon as the crybabies got the sanctions lifted.

Now Iraq is looking better all the time and we need to focus on the Afghanistan theater, not look back and try to find fault with bullshit issues like Plame.

The left got their whitewater and all they could find was one guy who "misremembered".

It is over and it is time you got over it.

Bush is not running for re-election and none of his cabinet memembers will be joining John in the White House next November.

So wake up and realize we are in the middle of a war and so many that you consider heroes are really borderline traitors.

[Defiyur]

Originally Posted by ArmedDrunk&Angry

So your "proof" is PBS ?
You know that they lean so far to the left they need a prop-rod to hold them up right ?

Have you ever bothered to watch it for more than 10 minutes? They actually have ALL kinds of shows often depicting both sides and viewpoints from "liberals" and "conservatives" alike. They provide information for YOU to decide how to interpret unlike other "news" networks which attempt to pawn off their opinions as facts.

Originally Posted by ArmedDrunk&Angry

Wake up to what exactly ?

That Islam is the religion of peace and if America was just nicer then they wouldn't breed extremists who kill civilians for their god ?

Have you ever talked to or even been friends with any Muslims? Maybe you should try it one day.

Originally Posted by ArmedDrunk&Angry

That North Korea can't be bribed ?

Why don't we leave them alone and let South Korea decide what they want to do? NK knows it will be OVER for them if they even try nukes, they aren't stupid.

Originally Posted by ArmedDrunk&Angry

That Iran can't be bribed ?

Your argument is erroneous, is bribing the only option to you?

Originally Posted by ArmedDrunk&Angry

Wake up to the fact that there really are dragons out there and sometimes you have to slay them.

Who has Iran invaded recently?

Originally Posted by ArmedDrunk&Angry

Al Queda may not have been in Iraq in 2001 but they moved there in 2003.
So the people who attacked us got their ass kicked and we got rid of a dangerous dictator who was ready to build WMDs as soon as the crybabies got the sanctions lifted.

I realize that but you know Saddam used to be our bud right? That was before he decided to do things his own way. So the "dictator" argument is absurd. We have no problem with dictators so long as they are in our pocket. Once they break from us we pull the "bad man" card and wave it to the general public to lap up like the feeble brained dolts that they are. Yes Saddam was bad but that is not the issue. The issue is deception.

Originally Posted by ArmedDrunk&Angry

Now Iraq is looking better all the time and we need to focus on the Afghanistan theater, not look back and try to find fault with bullshit issues like Plame.

Yes it's looking better but to who? Have you heard of the Iraq oil privatization law? Also eventually some people justifiably just get tired of misery and pain and probably are willing to submit to us simply because they are tired.