Scott McClellan: Bush Mired in Propaganda and Political Spin

[David Octavius]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House Wednesday said it was "puzzled" by a former spokesman's memoir in which he accuses the Bush administration of being mired in propaganda and political spin and at times playing loose with the truth.


Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan blasts President Bush and advisers in a new book.





In excerpts from a 341-page book to be released Monday, Scott McClellan writes on the war in Iraq that Bush "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."


"[i]n this regard, he was terribly ill-served by his top advisers, especially those involved directly in national security," McClellan wrote.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino called McClellan's description of his time at the White House "sad." Read excerpts from the book »
"Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House," Perino 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."


McClellan's former White House colleagues had harsher reactions to McClellan's book.


Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security adviser to Bush, said advisers to the president should speak up when they have policy concerns.
"Scott never did that on any of these issues as best I can remember or as best as I know from any of my White House colleagues," said Townsend, now a CNN contributor. "For him to do this now strikes me as self-serving, disingenuous and unprofessional."


Fox News contributor and former White House adviser Karl Rove said on that network Tuesday that the excerpts from the book he's read sound more like they were written by a "left-wing logger" than his former colleague.


Rove declined to comment to CNN after the Fox News interview.
In a brief phone conversation with CNN Tuesday evening, McClellan made clear that he stands behind the accuracy of his book. McClellan said he cannot give on-the-record quotes yet because of an agreement with his publisher. Watch further details emerge from McClellan's book »
Another former Bush aide-turned-critic says the reaction to McClellan's book by his former colleagues has a familiar ring to it.
"They're saying some of the exact same things about McClellan they said about me," Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism chief,

told CNN.


Clarke left government in 2003. The following year, he accused President Bush of ignoring warnings about the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington and of using the attacks to push for war with Iraq.
But Clarke gave McClellan little credit for speaking out now.


"I think the difference with McClellan's book is he's now telling us something we all know -- that the war with Iraq was a disastrous war [and] was sold with deception. It's a little different when you say something as I did and a few other people did four or five years ago, when the war was popular and when we were unpopular for saying what we said."


Besides his criticism of how the administration handled the run-up to the Iraq war, McClellan also sharply criticizes the administration on its handling of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in the book.


"One of the worst disasters in our nation's history became one of the biggest disasters in Bush's presidency," he wrote. "Katrina and the botched federal response to it would largely come to define Bush's second term."
Early in the book, which CNN obtained late Tuesday, McClellan wrote that he believes he told untruths on Bush's behalf in the case of CIA agent Valerie Plame, whose identity was leaked to the media.


Rove and fellow White House advisers Elliot Abrams and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were accused of leaking the name of Plame -- whose husband, former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson, had gone public with charges the Bush administration had "twisted" facts to justify the war in Iraq.


Libby was convicted last year of lying to a grand jury and federal agents investigating the leak. Bush commuted his 30-month prison term, calling it excessive. At the time, McClellan called the three "good individuals" and said he spoke to them before telling reporters they were not involved.
"I had allowed myself to be deceived into unknowingly passing along a falsehood," he wrote. "It would ultimately prove fatal to my ability to serve the president effectively."


McClellan wrote he didn't realize what he said was untrue until reporters began digging up details of the case almost two years later.


A former spokesman for Bush when he was governor of Texas, McClellan was named White House press secretary in 2003, replacing Ari Fleischer. McClellan had previously been a deputy press secretary and was the traveling spokesman for the Bush campaign during the 2000 election.
He announced he was resigning in April 2006 at a news conference with Bush.


"One of these days, he and I are going to be rocking in chairs in Texas talking about the good old days of his time as the press secretary," Bush said at that conference. "And I can assure you, I will feel the same way then that I feel now, that I can say to Scott, job well done."

Another aide turns on Bush. If this is true it goes to show that Bush is not an idiot, he knows how to manipulate the levers to get what he wants but alas that is the political reality of our time

[WickedLou9]

I don't think this really suprises anyone.

[Donkey®]

I love the fact that these people are stepping up now to spill shit like this. I hate the fact that these people are stepping up JUST now to spill shit like this.

[motivez]

Part of me thinks that he's doing this just to sell books, but by some of the opeds I've read today have quoted those around Bush as being shocked and surprised by the level and harshness of some of the criticisms

I mean, even the titles of the chapters are pretty harsh.

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by motivez

Part of me thinks that he's doing this just to sell books, but by some of the opeds I've read today have quoted those around Bush as being shocked and surprised by the level and harshness of some of the criticisms

I mean, even the titles of the chapters are pretty harsh.

I was unaware that the PR guy was responsible for policy decisions, and the timing is very questionable. There have already been other past administration members that have called him out for inaccuracies

[kombayn]

Considering the fact that Bush has some if not the most resignations in an administration, I'm not surprised by this. George W. Bush will go down as one of the Worst Presidents in American History.

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by kombayn

Considering the fact that Bush has some if not the most resignations in an administration, I'm not surprised by this. George W. Bush will go down as one of the Worst Presidents in American History.

where are you getting this info from?

[Scrum]

Didn't he already write a book about this?

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by Scrum

Didn't he already write a book about this?

I think they leaked part of it awhile ago to get the buzz started

[Scrum]

Originally Posted by kinggovernor

I think they leaked part of it awhile ago to get the buzz started

I looked back and found the thread.

Looks like they had leaked an early manuscript and we discussed it.

It really threw me off because he did the talk show circuit at the time.

[avsp]

"Water is wet" shock, ..., more at 11 etc

[6SpeedTA95]

I think motz hit the nail on the head. He's doing this to sell books. I'm sure the president has his issues, some of them major. But I also think that this is a ploy to sell books and he's jumping on the hate bush bandwagon.

[motivez]

Originally Posted by 6SpeedTA95

I think motz hit the nail on the head. He's doing this to sell books. I'm sure the president has his issues, some of them major. But I also think that this is a ploy to sell books and he's jumping on the hate bush bandwagon.

I think it's partly to sell books, but as I read more about this, it seems sincere. I don't think he'd risk his long time friendship with the man just to sell more books.. this is a guy who has worked for Bush since Bush was in Texas, so it's a long time friendship he's risking here

[motivez]

Wexler wants him to testify before Congress under oath about the allegations made in his book.. I guess we'll see how much is true and how much is trying to sell books if he doesn't somehow manage to get out of it:

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.

U.S. Representative Robert Wexler, Representing the 19th District of Florida

[6SpeedTA95]

Originally Posted by motivez

I think it's partly to sell books, but as I read more about this, it seems sincere. I don't think he'd risk his long time friendship with the man just to sell more books.. this is a guy who has worked for Bush since Bush was in Texas, so it's a long time friendship he's risking here

Oh I'm sure there's some truth's mixed in. Unfortunately money makes people behave in a manner they wouldn't normally...this is either the real deal or its mostly fabrications with bits of reality mixed in. No way to tell for sure.

[motivez]

Originally Posted by 6SpeedTA95

Oh I'm sure there's some truth's mixed in. Unfortunately money makes people behave in a manner they wouldn't normally...this is either the real deal or its mostly fabrications with bits of reality mixed in. No way to tell for sure.

Well now that they want him to testify about the stuff he's said, we're poised to find out one way or another.

[David Octavius]

From what I've read about him, Wexler seems to be a pretty good congressman

[DosEquis]

McClellan and Richard Clarke both need to testify about all the stuff.

Not to mention that if what they say is true, stepping out now just confirms they are disgusting, the worst patriots, borderline treasonous, characters that just loafed along with the administration and its bullshit. They can't help but be partially responsible for the mess we are in, deaths of american soldiers, deaths of iraqi people. Just so disheartening. They all belong in jail or something.

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by motivez

Wexler wants him to testify before Congress under oath about the allegations made in his book.. I guess we'll see how much is true and how much is trying to sell books if he doesn't somehow manage to get out of it: