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TechnoratiBush Aide Scores White House War Propaganda
The Bush administration employed propaganda techniques, political spin and deception to promote and then justify a war with Iraq that was unwise and unnecessary.
And a "too-deferential" national press corps allowed the president and his aides to get away with it.
Who makes this devastating, if not entirely new, charge?
The man responsible for spinning the story of the Bush presidency, former White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
In a memoir that will be published Monday, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, the veteran campaign and White House aide to George W. Bush portrays his former boss and those around him as permanent campaigners who frequently sacrificed the good of the country to achieve dubious political and policy goals.
McClellan is sharply critical of the Bush White House's handling of definitional domestic policy challenges, particularly Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.
But nowhere is the former press aide so devastating in his critique of his former boss as on the issue of how the United States was steered into the quagmire that is Iraq.
Bush, he writes, is guilty of a "failure to be open and forthright on Iraq and (of) rushing to war with inadequate planning and preparation for its aftermath."
Accusing the president of engaging in "self-deception" when it came to the facts from the Middle East, McClellan explains 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, (Bush) was terribly ill-served by his top advisers, especially those involved directly in national security," argues McClellan, who is blistering in his description of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, the president's former national security adviser, as "too accommodating" and too concerned about protecting her own reputation to challenge strategies that she had to know were ill-advised and dangerous.
And what of the free press that is supposed to serve as a watchdog on executive excess and deceit?
"If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq," the former spokesman writes. "The collapse of the administration's rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. ... In this case, the 'liberal media' didn't live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served."
McClellan, Bush's traveling press secretary during the 2000 campaign and a former deputy press secretary to the president who served as White House spokesman from 2003 until 2006, is blunt and detailed in discussing administration efforts to destroy the reputation of a critic of the rush to war, former Ambassador Joe Wilson (and Wilson's wide, outed-CIA agent Valerie Plame).
"I had allowed myself to be deceived into unknowingly passing along a falsehood," he writes of his defenses of key players in the scandal such as White House political czar Karl Rove and fellow White House advisers Elliot Abrams and I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby. "It would ultimately prove fatal to my ability to serve the president effectively."
While Bush, too, may have been deceived, McClellan explains that "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 lie, and the others related to the war, are the bitter legacy McClellan wrestles with in an agonizing account of the White House in which he served. That account will serve as an essential document of the Bush presidency, and of the current campaign to replace it.
Above all, however, McClellan's book is a cautionary tale that reminds us that powerful men and the governments they guide must never be allowed to wage wars of whim.
"History appears poised to confirm what most Americans today have decided: that the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder," he writes. "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. What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary."
John Nichols' new book is The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism. Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson hails it as a "nervy, acerbic, passionately argued history-cum-polemic [that] combines a rich examination of the parliamentary roots and past use of the 'heroic medicine' that is impeachment with a call for Democratic leaders to 'reclaim and reuse the most vital tool handed to us by the founders for the defense of our most basic liberties.'"
Copyright © 2008 The Nation
53 Comments so far
Show Alllwhunt330 [May 30th, 2008 11:49 am], there were stories from years ago, I think I read it in the Texas Observer, that Scott McClellan was a regular patron of gay bars in Austin. Karl Rove has also been 'outted' for visiting gay bars in Washington, although all of this remains in the unconfirmed realm of rumors.
Too bad no member -- no pun intended -- of our Big Media -- oh, brother -- can be bothered to track down why Guckert/Gannon was admitted to the White House on days when no press conference was scheduled and often left without signing out. (Meaning they visited someone important enough -- Bush, Cheney, Rove -- that they could bypass security procedures when leaving.)
In all of these CNN and MSNBC interviews with Scott McClellan, will somebody PLEASE ask Scott why he willing went along with the depositing of Jeff Gannon (a male prostitute with no journalistic credentials) into the White House Press Corp with the purpose of lobbing soft-ball questions to Scott McClellan and president Bush. Who put him into the Press Corp and who instructed Scott to call on him? The other fascinating thing is that none of the other Press Corp members every called him out on this or asked who this new (and seriously uninformed colleague was). Maybe Scott can also tell us who Jeff Gannon was visiting in his 200 visits to the White House recorded in the Secret Service Log. Is President Bush? Scott McClellan? Carl Rove? Dick Cheney? Josh Bolton? gay??
If enough district attorneys and state prosecutors read Buguliosi's book on The Prosecution of GW Bush for Murder in conjuction with Scott's book, it may create a ground swell from around the country to bring Bush and his lacky's into court room after court room until such time as their crimes and the lives they destroyed are paid for. This nation and the world would rejoice in that event….
Yes,in this climate of change when Americans are finally waking from a lulled political sleep to see that it really does matter who is chosen as President. It matters, in lives and dollars spent, who makes the final call when it comes to national security .
Who has the cool head and who has the hot one.
It is sad that Wexler continues to be ignored by more centrist democrats concerning the impeachment of the President and the Vice President. It is glaringly obvious that this group of elected officials are more concerned about political careers than duty.
I might add this seems also to be the case with Scott McClellan who had the chance to do his duty, as did Powell. Both chose to walk away instead.
There is no denying that the Dem leadership is just trying to ride it out until the Nov. elections but, if Wexler, Waxman, Kucinich, Conyers, Slaughter, et al, can make a strong enough case for impeachment, perhaps even the Dem leadership won't be able to ignore it. Moreover, even if Bush and Cheney are out of office, it is possible for the AG to file charges against them for crimes committed while in office. Wexler and the others can collect the evidence for those possible future prosecutions.
It will be interesting to see if Bush tries to issue a blanket pardon for himself and his goon squad on his last day as president, and if the incoming, likely Dem majority Congress will let him get away with that.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/bush-m30.shtml
In a letter to supporters, Wexler said that the statements in McClellan's book justified impeachment hearings against Cheney. He quickly acknowledged, however, that the continuing revelations of outright criminality in the administration "have not been enough to convince even a majority of the liberal and progressive Members of Congress to support impeachment hearings. In addition, the leadership of the Democratic Party in Congress genuinely feels that pursuing impeachment will jeopardize our congressional agenda and threaten gains in the November elections."
In other words, the Democratic leadership—which has repeatedly declared impeachment "off the table"—intends to do absolutely nothing about McClellan's damning testimony, outside of milk it for a few cheap political points. It cannot follow the logical course of pursuing those responsible for a criminal war of aggression, because the Democrats are themselves wholly complicit. Indeed, the party's leadership in the House and Senate are in the process of approving another $165 billion to continue a war that, as House Speaker Pelosi admitted yesterday, is based on lies.
When G. W. Bush was elected president in 2000 my friends asked me what I thought about it. I answered: "the presidency will be way over his head" because I was then and still am a resident of Texas and was familiar with his record as our governor. The governorship was already "way over his head". Regrettably most of the U.S. electorate did not realize this in 2000, nor in 4000. Judging from the snippets of McClellan's text I have heard, they fully confirm my prediction of 2000. This seems to me to be by far the most salient, perhaps the only 'new revelation' of his memoir. Will the next president be more aware of potential blunders prior to acting? Is his/her current political record as member of the U.S. Senate indicative of what may be in store for us in this respect? Will he/she grill advisers relentlessly and keep a tight rein on the vice-president? That seems to me to be far more significant than race, gender, age, religious fervor, character, endurance, hot air, you name it. For me, the textbook example of modern presidential blundering is the first period of JFK's presidency: Vienna, Bay of Pigs. Could that have been predicted? Absolutely, just listen to JFK's inaugural address of January 1961 and you will get it too.
FrankFrank,
it seemed to me that Bush was trying to get Saddam off the earth as fast as possible, to shut him up. Saddam did commit atrocities. I don't think a 'murder of Saddam' charge would hold. I am interested in reading the reference given by Ramsheyi concerning the trial and the facts brought forth. Everything was so hush-hush.
Should Bush be charged with the murder of Saddam Hussein?
anwong
There are enough documented facts to hang these conspirators a hundred times. There is nothing wrong with a little ranting now and then, it is good for what ails you. Now if McClellan were to announce that all profits from his book and future appearances were going to the victims due to his role in this catastrophic invasion, then I would praise his fortrightness. If he were to personally apologize to every person he harmed, I might even invite him over to dinner. But confession for any other reason is bogus to me. To me he is giving the facts either for some type of revenge, or to try to change the perception of his duplicity. All the conspirators at one time took an oath to uphold our Constitution, and are bound by international laws and treaties, and hopefully have enough common sense and decency to know better.
Oh the irony:
"If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq," Scotty sez, after doing his damnedest to sell his line of bullshit to the national press corps.
This is a bit like Otter in Animal House when he says: "You f#cked up. You believed us."
Mr. RAMSHEYI,
The "Ministry" has an inquiry for you.
How do you intend to "address" those future issues without careful accounting of the past particularly utilizing those who collaborated with past crimes and malfeasence? Would Watergate ever have become unravelled without John Dean becoming a "turncoat" who was eviscerated by all sides of the political spectrum? I suspect not.
In any case, self righteous rants, such as yours above, are emotionally gratifying to be sure, I have done them myself, but they are hardly going to be effective in challenging the issues you seek to address and avoiding the events you seek to prevent in the future.
The careful building of facts, from all sources imaginable, including Mr. McClellan will be required for accountability to be made, and, without that, nothing will change.
Rants of outrage will only be cyber background noise as the nation continues on its current, disastrous course.
I hope Pelosi reads this book. Her unconscionable and traitorous decision not to impeach the war criminals in office should also be exposed. Perhaps the reason is that she feared also incriminating the 110 Democrats who voted for the war, and those who continue to support it. The Democrats know that to open an impeachment motion against Bush for lying about the need to go to war would put their heads firmly on the chopping block.
Mr anwong,
People are not that dumb and numb and stupid as you at the Ministry imagine. Some have managed to squeeze past the brainwashing machinery and have educated themselved. That's why they are gathered here in the first place. They know the basics that is written on the wall. McClellan can not and will not make ground-breaking revelations.
The issues that people here want to be addressed are future wars, false flags, the secret of the current economic meltdown,and above all, the prospect of having in the White House another stooge of the Establishment who will inevitably carry on the same bankrupt policies of warmongering and fearmongering and terrormongering and hatemongering while the Haves and the Haves-More (remember "You are my base, you are the Haves and Haves More" ?) get richer through taxpayers rip-off .
It has been interesting reviewing these posts. A majority have been about discrediting McClellan, which can arguably be justified and can certainly be easily done. And, as ad hominems work, this also discredits McClellan's message of the deceptions and of the cynical machinations of the Bush administration.
In this way, the supposed left-wing posters here have, probably unwittingly, joined warm hands with the right, the neocons, and all the rest of administration apologists that have been all over the airwaves lately engaged in the same effort.
No wonder the left has become irrelevant to American politics. I suppose I should not be surprised that self righteousness ranting has its emotional rewards for all sides of the political spectrum.
The truth about the trial of Saddam Hussein :
'The Trial Of Saddam Hussein' by Dr Abdul-Haq Al-Ani
isbn : 978-0-932863-58-4/2008/421 pages/$21,95
There are much more eye-opening facts here than in McClellan's whitewash.
By the way, war on Iran is scheduled for August. The sheeple ought to be put into deep deep coma on the beach by feeding them trash lullabies. Get to work you faithful servants and gatekeepers of the Establishment : John Nichols, Noam Chomsky, Scott Ritter, Robert Fisk et al
His attack of conscience comes late. No doubt all that money from the book fees will somehow assuage his deep distress.
So much guilt. Trying to cleanse one's soul to avoid the everlasting fires of hell. With time, there will be no stone any of these criminals will be able to hide under to avoid justice.
I wonder if Saddam Husein left a diary, a tell all about our government's complicity in his crimes. Maybe Scott could edit it and make more money.
militantliberal [May 28th, 2008 7:18 pm] wrote: "I had the same thought as NateW. McClellan's book is like the Nazis at Nuremberg disclaiming responsibility for the regime's atrocities. Unfortunately, unfavorable memoirs are as much of a trial as the war criminals are ever likely to get."
I think, just looking at some of the clueless Bush loyalists such as Monica "Messiah College" Goodling, Harriet "Baby Jane" Miers, and Michael "Heckuva Job!" Brown, that it's entirely possible McClellan was simply too obtuse and in the bucket for Bush to understand what was going on around him. Plus, as he says in slightly different words, nobody was going to tell this idiot much anyway -- too much of a chance that he might stumble and tell the truth.
It's true, an average person should have seen through the BS, but these are Republican Bush People, mutants uniquely selected by nature to contain ten pounds of manure in their one-ounce brains.
I hope we're pleasantly surprised and the Bush-bots don't escape prosecution entirely. One thing's for sure -- they won't be retiring to Europe.
Jonma [May 29th, 2008 1:30 am], I tend to mostly agree with your assessmemt, but Junior is definitely a Freudian circus of verbal tics, Oedipal gaffes and wincing sadism. Sort of like Caligula without (as far as we know) the sex. It's no accident that Barbara Bush the family matriarch has been compared to Agrippina, both in her cold-eyed cruelty to her children, her cold-blooded manipulation of those around her, and her overbearing awareness of her aristocracy and regal sense of entitlement. You have to wonder what would have happened if wimpy Poppy Bush had stayed in Connecticut after WWII, the one time he didn't follow 'Bar's' advice.
Another rat, Bert from the Muppets in this case, jumps the stinking hulk of state that amerika has long been. Ahoy!!! Reefs ahead. Why do all these thugs look like overweight Nazis?
The timing is perfect, you gotta give the wily Scot that much as he cashes in his part in genocide for a comfortable conscience free future!
"While Bush, too, may have been deceived, McClellan explains that "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.""
Oh, that poor Mr. Bush, deceived by his underlings. Poor, poor Mr. Bush. I just hope that Mr. McClellan told him about those bad men before he left. Otherwise it would be like leaving a baby in a wolves den.
Can you spell "SMOKESCREEN"? McLellan∂'s book makes it sound like it was not about the money. Bush & Co. have run this country like a leveraged buyout since the first election, and the only thing they wanted was to loot the Clinton surplus for themselves and their friends. It was not about out-doing Daddy by winning a second term. It was not about christianity or neo-conservatism. Oil and gas prices only enrich the Bushies. Stop thinking all this has had anything to do with politics or ideology. It's all about the money.
Scott Mclellan should come forward about what Dick Cheney was doing that fateful morning of 9/11.
But as one of the inside men, he knows all to well what would happen to him.
And probably will.
And I find it just a little too strangely coincidental and convenient that this book is coming out right as the US gears up to do Iran.
Scottie... stay away from large bodies of water, airplanes, bathtubs and Cheney hunting trips...
"failure to be open and forthright" - this book is more fluff. What a joke!! He could have been much more hard hitting than this. McClellan does not say what he knows, which is the facts that would make an impeachable case against Bush on torture, outing Plame, or the outright lies about invading and occupying Iraq. McClellan does not get forgiveness 'for playing along', not in this book, he needs to write one with the full facts.
The only people fooled by the Bush regime lies are the same fools who still believe the Bush regime lies.
Democracy in a functional form may require some sort of intelligence-test qualification for voters.
Well, I don't have to buy the book I know how it ends.....
well said, anwong (May 28th, 2008 3:51 pm). Lets hope that every former Bush official confesses and, even while claiming personal innocence, accuses every other Bush official of malfeasance. Its better than complete silence. Its a step in the right direction.
Everyone has already said everything that needs to be said. So I'll just echo: don't enrich the bastard by buying his book. Jail him along with the others!!!
Isn't McClellen's book another reason why W and company need to be impeached? McClellen must be really stupid if he didn't catch on that he was told to tell lies. I'm a yokel from the boonies and I could see it. Why didn't he confess when it would have made a difference?
I smell obfuscation?
Majestic : "Bush...is guilty of rushing to war with inadequate planning and preparations for its aftermath" Which means that he not a war crminal, not a torturer, not a blood thirsty sub-human sub-animal monster. No, the disastrous war is O.k. He should only be reprimanded for inadequate preparations. What a negligent rascal.
All this is BULLSHIT folks. Don't fall for this new propaganda brainwashing crap from the Ministry of Propaganda. The fact of the matter is that more and more revelations are coming out about 9/11 massacre, whistleblowers are saying it loud and clear across the Internet that it was Bush himself who authorized the massmurder of 9/11. More proofs are being presented by scientists and engineers and architects that make it plain obvious that the horror was an INSIDE JOB.
The gangsters are scared and are on the run with no place to hide. So, they send out their most reliable and most faithful propagandists to deviate people's attention from the main issue which is 9/11, to sidetrack,to divert and to plant red herrings by publishing phony books that reveal absolutely nothing new, just to keep people's mind detracted and busy with hogwash and baloney and horseshit.
Is McClellas and an honest disillusioned ? Fine, where is his honesty when it comes to 9/11? Does he get anywhere close to telling us how it was masterminded inside the White House? Of course not. So, he remains a liar as before.
Mr John Nichols, 9/11 is a Litmus Test. Any intelligent person of your stature with access to top secrets knows the details. If you come out and tell us that it was an INSIDE JOB, then you will be reliable and worthy of respect because we know the truth. So far you have been selling us the fairytale of 19 hijackers armed with boxcutters who hate our freedom bullshit. You have failed the Litmus Test of 9/11 Mr Nochols. You are a propagandist in the hire of the Establishment, you are an agent of Big Brother's Ministry of Truth. You are exposed.
Scott:
If you are sincere in what you are saying now, or even if you are making a "half-hearted" effort at this late stage in the game, and since you are now finding out who are not really your friends, I would like to extend my gratitude to you for your sharing your insight.
If you have totally "come clean" - congratulations! If not, we are here to support you as you realize just how ruthless life can be.
Thank you. Next!
David Corn had one of the best responses to this. He stated that if McClellan were truly regretful about his role in the deaths of 4,000 plus Americans, the destruction of an entire country and the deaths of 1,000,000 Iraqis for no good reason, he would donate the entire sales of his book to charity.
When monkeys fly out his ass.
I had the same thought as NateW. McClellan's book is like the Nazis at Nuremberg disclaiming responsibility for the regime's atrocities. Unfortunately, unfavorable memoirs are as much of a trial as the war criminals are ever likely to get.
ppeters May 28th, 2008 1:13 pm, absolutely right and I recall back in 2002 or 2003 Helen Thomas (I think it was) said something to the effect that every member of the White House Press Corps knows they are being fed lies about the Iraq War, and Bush's press secretary is well aware he is lying, but they all play the game since it's good for their employers like NBC-owner GE's defense contractor business and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and Fox News. Even the NY Times and Washington Post supported Bush's Bust in the Dust -- both media companies enjoyed Bush's tax cuts and needed approval from Junior's FCC to expand their media empires.
As has been mentioned, perhaps McClellan sees the writing on the wall -- Bushites are going to start being prosecuted and going to jail --and he's trying to preemptively excuse himself from blame, just as Colin Powell has been desperately trying to resurrect his reputation since his piece of performance art at the UN that helped, more than anything else, sell the American public on this needless war. They are both finding that this kind of blood doesn't scrub easily off of their hands.
A lie is a deliberate false statement as a dictionary would surely inform people, which the Republicans, of course, have a copyright on going back to when they buried Abraham Lincoln.
A lie is a deliberate false statement as a dictionary would surely inform people, which the Republicans, of course, have a copyright on going back to when they buried Abraham Lincoln.
Dreamkeeper,
Thanks for the reminder about Ford's press secretary TerHorst resigning after Ford pardoned Nixon.
Didn't LBJ's press secretary Bill Moyers (yes that Bill Moyers) also resign from the Johnson administration?
McClellen is a professional liar. It's nice he's willing to say bad things now about Bush. McClellen is also a war criminal, and should be about 46th on the list of US war criminals (including some Democrats) to be arrested and stand trial. Not gonna happen, is it?
Of course, if everyone who worked on behalf of war criminals spoke out and resigned, there'd be a loooong line at the unemployment office...
Odd that it took McClellen all this time to realize he was repeating lies and propaganda when many of the rest of we common folk knew it from the start. Maybe someone can give him a medal to go with his book profits. Oh well, better late than never.
McClellan, you little worthless twit. It was obvious you were lieing through your teeth every time you opened your mouth. Your 'revelations' are old news to anyone who was paying attention. It is incredible that you chastize the "liberal media" for "believing" the lies you deliberately fed them on a daily basis (and when you were called on the carpet -- your feigned righteous indignation and contempt for them). What a scum bag. You will burn in hell for this -- apology NOT accepted. If you do not donate every penny you make from this stupid book (although I can't imagine who would even buy it), you are nothing but slime.
Write about the rats leaving the sinking ship, otherwise known as the endgame for Dubya, Cheney, & Co. has begun. Expect a raft of these scum bags to ape their own version of "I wasn't a Nazi" that was so popular in Germany from 1945 onwards. Perhaps McClellan's book will be the Bush crime family's version of "Inside the Third Reich" by Albert Speer.
I think that I would give McClellan some credit here. Of course, he carries significant responsibility for the deception of this administration. But still, most of those who have left the administration have not taken the risk of the retribution of this administration to tell the inside story.
Would people rather see McClellan be like Colin Powell? Have misgivings, but not go public on them except through surrogates so as not to endanger his lecture tours and fees? We need to encourage more people to come forward like McClellan to tell the story of this administration, otherwise any chance for accountability will be lost. Simply cynically dismissing the man for coming forward is easy to do, but counterproductive.
McClellan confesses to aiding and abetting high crimes and misdemeanors and, instead of being arrested, he's cashing in.
Ignorance does not constitute innocence. "I didn't know I was driving a getaway car, your honor. I swear - they said they were just making a deposit into their Christmas funds... Yes, your honor, I was curious about the guns and ski masks, but I'm just a f**king moron."
IWHUNT: Exactly!
Every penny from McClellan's book sale should go to fund limbless orphans in Iraq. That is, after he pays for his own bullet, PRC style.
Does anyone remember Jerald TerHorst? He was Gerald Ford's first press secretary and a personal friend of the president. He resigned immediately after the Nixon pardon because he knew he would be asked to defend it and he could not in any good conscience do so, especially since Ford had denied amnesty to draft evaders living abroad. TerHorst was a true mensch, while McClellan is doubly contemptible for condoning immoral, illegal acts then and trying to cash in on them now.
Book-writing is what brings home the bacon after a tour at The White House. Dana Perino will no doubt write one too, and I'll bet she will tell us that Bush tried his hardest every day to do God's will. The ones who have departed will be severe critics and the last press secretary standing (if Perino remains to January) will be the cheerleader---probably with a church spin for church folks. We'll see.
Meanwhile, the goal, as Obama says, is to "turn the page".
(Spare us the griping about that.)
The "liberal media" was never taken it by the deception. The media that reports from Washington and referred to as "liberal" is the media of G.E., Disney and Fox.
Is impeachment on the table yet?
McClellan is now another puppet, like Colin Powell, that was used by this evil administration and now wants to reclaim a more moral place in history. These puppets knew what they were saying was not true and what they were doing was wrong. Not speaking up when they could have stopped the deaths of 4000 US soldiers and 1 million Iraqis and permanent injury to thousands is unforgivable. Yes they were used, but no, they weren't ignorant of what was going on. They chose to remain part of the international crime and should ultimately be judged as co-conspirators.
Although I hope that this information works against John McClone, I see a well orchestrated white hat/black hat campaign in the works that will actually help McClone.
Stage 1: Bush makes idiotic remarks to Israelis and other foreign governments.
Stage 2: Insider exposes Bush war propaganda machine.
Stage 3: Portray McClone as the reluctant warrior that was fighting Bush every step of the way and would never do anything the way Bush does.
Stage 4: The swing voters (in the three states that will determine the outcome of the 2008 election) fall for it.
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
US swing voters are way past twice !
It's too bad McClellan chose to portray himself as "poor little lied to me." He had to have been aware of what was going on, more so than those of us who weren't anywhere near DC. We didn't need to be told what was going on - it was blatantly obvious.
"I had allowed myself to be deceived into unknowingly passing along a falsehood," he writes of his defenses of key players in the scandal such as White House political czar Karl Rove and fellow White House advisers Elliot Abrams and I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby. "It would ultimately prove fatal to my ability to serve the president effectively."
BULLSHIT!! Its too late to save your ass now, you lying scum. You were as complicit as any of them. Either that or you are just plain stupid, which I do not believe to be the case. I used to watch your shifty, beady eyes, and could see right through you. In a more perfect world you would swing from the nearest lamp post just like the rest of your neocon fascist cabal. YOU ARE GUILTY!!