The guy is a hero to me now!!!!
“I fell far short of living up to the kind of public servant I wanted to be... [the news media were] complicit enablers ... [in the White House’s] carefully orchestrated campaign to shape and manipulate sources of public approval.” -- Scott McClellan
But the "liberal" AmeriKan MSM doesn't protect George W. Bush and this administration or promote their interests.
Of course, if they reported the truth then they would be admitting their role as complicit enablers as well as mouthpieces full of propaganda and lies.
And they continue with the charade to this day, which is why you get the swearing.
My bad; I should not be looking to them for the truth. Shouldn't I know better by now?
So I had to go outside the country:
Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan has said US President George W Bush was not "open and forthright" on Iraq and rushed to an unnecessary war.
In a book to be published on Monday, Mr McClellan says Mr Bush "veered terribly off course". He also attacks the White House's handling of Hurricane Katrina.
From July 2003 to his resignation in April 2006, Mr McClellan was a firm defender of the Bush administration.
The White House has not yet commented on the 341-page memoir.
Mr McClellan was a long-standing member of Mr Bush's inner circle, having worked for him when he was Texas governor before following him to the White House.
'Manipulating opinion'
Extracts from the book, first disclosed by Washington-based news website Politico.com, give an often scathing view of both the president and his highest-ranking aides.
| | 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 Scott McClellan |
In What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, Mr McClellan describes White House staff as spending much of the first week after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 "in a state of denial".
"One of the worst disasters in our nation's history became one of the biggest disasters in Bush's presidency," he writes.
"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."
Mr McClellan stops short of saying Mr Bush lied about the reasons for going to war in Iraq, but says his administration orchestrated the build-up so that force became the only real option.
Quoted by the Washington Post, he writes that "it was all about manipulating sources of public opinion to the president's advantage" and chides the media for failing to ask enough questions.
"No-one, including me, can know with absolute certainty how the war will be viewed decades from now when we can more fully understand its impact," he says.
"What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary."
'Repeat a lie'
Mr McClellan also accuses former senior Bush strategist Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice-President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, of misleading him about a CIA leak case involving White House staff.
Libby was found guilty last March of obstruction of justice and perjury over the investigation into the unmasking of CIA officer Valerie Plame.
"Rove, Libby, and possibly Vice-President Cheney allowed me, even encouraged me, to repeat a lie" that Libby was not involved, Mr McClellan writes.
In other excerpts quoted by the Washington Post, he describes Mr Bush as "a man of personal charm, wit and enormous political skill" and says he did not set out to engage in "destructive practices" but became caught up in Washington politics.
Mr Rove, speaking on Fox News, where he is now a political commentator, said Mr McClellan should have spoken out sooner if he had concerns about White House policies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/7423099.stm
Published: 2008/05/28 10:29:48 GMT
© BBC MMVIII"
What, and get his ass booted and defamed like O'Neill or Lindsay?
I don't approve, but I certainly understand why you didn't "speak up," Scotty.
I spoke out at the time and I was dissed out of classrooms. Kids gasped when I said Saddam didn't have weapons, and I KNEW THAT because I SAW Scott Ritter in April of 2002 -- a DAY I WILL NEVER FORGET!!!!
By the way, I decided to check the New York Times.
It doesn't make thier paper version, but is on the website:
"In Book, Ex-Spokesman Has Harsh Words for Bush
New York Times, United States -
PHOENIX — President Bush “convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment,” and has engaged in “self-deception” to justify his political ends, Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary, writes in a critical new memoir about his years in the West Wing.
In addition, Mr. McClellan writes, the decision to invade Iraq was a “serious strategic blunder,” and yet, in his view, it was not the biggest mistake the Bush White House made. That, he says, was “a decision to turn away from candor and honesty when those qualities were most needed.”
Mr. McClellan’s book, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception,” is the first negative account by a member of the tight circle of Texans around Mr. Bush. Mr. McClellan, 40, went to work for Mr. Bush when he was governor of Texas and was the White House press secretary from July 2003 to April 2006.
The revelations in the book, to be published by PublicAffairs next Tuesday, were first reported Tuesday on Politico.com by Mike Allen. Mr. Allen wrote that he bought the book at a Washington store. The New York Times also obtained an advance copy.
Mr. McClellan writes that top White House officials deceived him about the administration’s involvement in the leaking of the identity of a C.I.A. operative, Valerie Wilson. He says he did not know for almost two years that his statements from the press room that Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby Jr. were not involved in the leak were a lie.
“Neither, I believe, did President Bush,” Mr. McClellan writes. “He too had been deceived, and therefore became unwittingly involved in deceiving me. But the top White House officials who knew the truth — including Rove, Libby, and possibly Vice President Cheney — allowed me, even encouraged me, to repeat a lie.”
That sounds cleaned up from the earlier hub-bub where McClellan seemed to indicate Bush was in on it all along -- which is undoubtedly be another truth we will never be told.
That's why the Times steers away from stuff like that. I've been reading them too long, and know their tricks now.
Oh, by the way, LEAKING HER NAME was TREASON -- but we've all seen where that goes!
He is harsh about the administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, saying it “spent most of the first week in a state of denial” and “allowed our institutional response to go on autopilot.” Mr. McClellan blames Mr. Rove for one of the more damaging images after the hurricane: Mr. Bush’s flyover of the devastation of New Orleans. When Mr. Rove brought up the idea, Mr. McClellan writes, he and Dan Bartlett, a top communications adviser, told Mr. Bush it was a bad idea because he would appear detached and out of touch. But Mr. Rove won out, Mr. McClellan writes.
A theme in the book is that the White House suffered from a “permanent campaign” mentality, and that policy decisions were inextricably interwoven with politics.
He is critical of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for her role as the “sometimes too accomodating” first term national security adviser, and what he calls her deftness at protecting her reputation.
“No matter what went wrong, she was somehow able to keep her hands clean,” Mr. McClellan writes, adding that “she knew how to adapt to potential trouble, dismiss brooding problems, and come out looking like a star.”
Like a ROCK STAR?!
Mr. McClellan does not exempt himself from failings — “I fell far short of living up to the kind of public servant I wanted to be” — and calls the news media “complicit enablers” in the White House’s “carefully orchestrated campaign to shape and manipulate sources of public approval” in the march to the Iraq war in 2002 and 2003.
He does have a number of kind words for Mr. Bush, particularly from the April day in 2006 when Mr. Bush met with Mr. McClellan after he learned he was being pushed out. “His charm was on full display, but it was hard to know if it was sincere or just an attempt to make me feel better,” Mr. McClellan writes. “But as he continued, something I had never seen before happened: tears were streaming down both his cheeks.”
Awwwwww, isn't that special -- a MASS-MURDERING WAR CRIMINAL who CRIES!!!!!
By the way, I didn't stay on the Times site long. I really didn't look at much else because I really don't like lying MSM anymore.
