[I don't believe I have ever posted about a book I have not read, but I'm going to make an exception today—but keep in mind I'm working off secondary sources, which inevitably carries the risk that I may be misinformed.]
Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has reportedly penned a confessional memoir admitting, inter alia, that “Bush relied on 'propaganda' to sell the war”; “the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war”; and suggesting that Rove and Libby conspired to obstruct justice.
I think the horrors of the US torture policy and the US Iraq policy have been so clear for so long that the time for civility is long past.
So, assuming the published book summaries are correct, in the main, I agree with Daily Kos: Cheers and Jeers: Wednesday where it is written:
MASSIVE JEERS to Scott McClellan. The latest former Bush lapdog—-he was press secretary from '03 to '06—-to come out of the woodwork has several juicy nuggets in his hot-off-the-presses tell-all book. Bottom line: he confirms everything that we dirty hippie bloggers were screaming about at the top of our lungs, but which the traditional media ignored because…well, because Scott McClellan stood at his little White House podium and denied it all, lying out of his fat little elitist face as the stenographers printed his crap without scrutiny.
Once again, we come face to face with a White House official who could've done the right thing…but instead decided that the lives of American troops, Iraqi civilians, Katrina victims, and a network of covert CIA operatives were worth less than the luster of his master's lapel pin. When our country needed him to tell it straight, he hid behind propaganda and spin and bogus talking points and outright bamboozlement.
He told us to our faces we could trust him, when all along he knew that he was committing deception on a massive scale with horrific consequences. The lies he left in his wake, placed end to end, could reach the moon and back. He helped put the welfare of a handful of maniacal warmongers ahead of the welfare of the country. The time to reveal the way the Bushies were “restoring honor and integrity to the White House” was back then—-years ago—-when such revelations might've done some good. Instead, he waited until 2008 for his conscience dump.
I could certainly have done without the personal appearance slur, but most of the rest of it seems a reasonable response to, as the Kos writer puts it, “341 pages of, Hey, I was just following orders.” (Although from the sound of it, the memoir is actually more along the equally ignoble lines of, “the noble good-hearted Tsar was badly served by his evil counselors.”)
But I do not agree with this absurd call to action. There are much better ways to protest.
this is so sad, not that we all didn’t know the truth long since. but it is just one more smudge on america.
If you disagree with the “stinky books” protest, why would you post that link?
Why on earth are you protesting the courageous action of Scott McClellan?
He just threw away his career, his connections and his life to tell the truth. It took him to two years to write and fastidiously proofread and fact check his book, which will be dissected and rebutted by the full weight of the White House. – So what!! Could any cry-baby out there do it any quicker?
I am actually shocked he did it now and not during the next administration when the retribution will not be as severe. But good for Scott McClellan for doing it now so that the American voters can consider it in November.
Yeah he makes money so what. I’ll buy a dozen copies, and have amazon deliver them to the White House.
What courage? Scott is like Gonzo, unemployable now.
He tried to hit up the speaker circuit first, probably, and then when that failed or got tapped out he wrote the book. Typical. Milk it for all its worth, Scotty.
Then you can go home and hang out at your favorite local bar.
While I do find it hilarious that Gonzo is giving the commencement speech for SIX (6) students at an obscure high school in the Virgin Islands, since he cannot get any better speaking gigs.
McClellan is nothing like Gonzo. He was forced out for not towing the Cheney-Rove line, not by Congress and the NY times. And he has come clean, Gonzo never did.
All these complaints about McClellan not coming clean sooner are all probably emanating originally from the big Republican noise machine, the fact that ostensibly non-Bush supporters are buying into this hooey is really troubling to me. If anyone has a real explanation as to why we should all hate McClellan because he didn’t come clean sooner please post it- I’d really like to hear it. Otherwise go back to indignantly echoing the party line about how criticizing the war in Iraq is not supportive of our troops and accept that we live in a one party state.