Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated “political propaganda campaign” led by President Bush and aimed at “manipulating sources of public opinion” and “downplaying the major reason for going to war…”
The book, coming from a man who was a tight-lipped defender of administration aides and policy, is certain to give fuel to critics of the administration, and McClellan has harsh words for many of his past colleagues. He accuses former White House adviser Karl Rove of misleading him about his role in the CIA case. He describes Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as being deft at deflecting blame, and he calls Vice President Cheney “the magic man” who steered policy behind the scenes while leaving no fingerprints.
In a chapter titled “Selling the War,” he alleges that the administration repeatedly shaded the truth and that Bush “managed the crisis in a way that almost guaranteed that the use of force would become the only feasible option.”
McClellan, once a staunch defender of the war from the podium, comes to a stark conclusion, writing, “What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary.”
The criticism of Bush in the book is striking, given that it comes from a man who followed him to Washington from Texas.Bush is depicted as an out-of-touch leader, operating in a political bubble, who has stubbornly refused to admit mistakes. McClellan defends the president’s intellect — “Bush is plenty smart enough to be president,” he writes — but casts him as unwilling or unable to be reflective about his job.
Of course, mini-clones still embrace the mistakes and say the war is “necessary and just” and should be continued.
Mustard, Douglas Feith’s book came out this year.
# 60 bobbo said, on May 28th, 2008 at 11:47 am
#59–FTC–can you explain this for us? The authors you list sell books bashing liberals to right wing nuts. How would a book criticizing the right wing nuts sell into that market? I suspect you buy those books given the depth of your insight.
Yes… and I was commenting on a post that hypothesized how well a book that DIDN’T criticize the “right wing nuts” would sell.
I could launch a personal attack back at you regarding the lack of care you take in reading other posts, but I won’t stoop to that level.
>>Mustard, Fouglas Feith’s book came out
>>this year.
Yeah, but other than Rummy (who loved the guy to death before he slunk away from Washington in disgrace), Larry Franklin (his underling who was put in the slammer for 12 years for espionage), and Ahmed Chalabi (who is wanted for embezzling $300,000,00.00) from his Jordanian bank, who bought it??
Who wants to read a chickenhawk’s views on Dumbya’s trophy war (is there anybody in Dumbya’s administration who is NOT a chickenhawk??)
51, just because mcclellan got his head out of the matrix is no reason to get pissy. worship me.
>>Run around some more, monkeys!
Heh heh heh. I think you’re confusing who are the monkeys and who are the organ grinders here, Jimmie.
#51 said: “You liberals sure are cute. Run around some more, monkeys!”
You should see me in a bikini you closet monkey lover. 😉
Bobbo, who told you Bush never left the country before 2000? You really think that’s likely for someone bankrolled by the Saudis?
McCLELLAN: Well, why, all of a sudden, if he had all these grave concerns, did he not raise these sooner? This is one-and-a-half years after he left the administration. And now, all of a sudden, he’s raising these grave concerns that he claims he had. And I think you have to look at some of the facts. One, he is bringing this up in the heat of a presidential campaign. He has written a book and he certainly wants to go out there and promote that book. Certainly let’s look at the politics of it.
So Mustard, do you think this is objective journalism to only promote books they agree with?
>>Bobbo, who told you Bush never left
>>the country before 2000?
Who told you he DID?
Link, please.
>>So Mustard, do you think this is
>>objective journalism to only promote
>>books they agree with?
Wtf are you talking about, Lyin’ Mike? Who’s “promoting” a book here? I’m not going to buy it. It’s just more gasoline on the fire of Dumbya’s pyre, burning his legacy into a charred, blackened ruin.
Would you like to support Dumbya? Do you think he’s been good for America? Do you think his trophy war has had a positive effect on the world?
Scott McClellan is scum! What’s worse:
1. Lie on behalf of Bush and Co for three years.
2. Get millions of dollars to write a tell all book about #1.
Would McClellan written the book for free?
Would he have written the book if Bush & Co had kept him on the payroll?
I doubt it.
Cashing out and making millions is the smart thing to do.
Every “tell-all” book is 50% true and 50% exaggeration.
I don’t see the big deal. Bush isn’t exactly popular.
And for the other members of the administration, that’s politics for you.
57 bobbo “I can’t make any sense of it as written:”
The answer, btw, is that Bush never had a Democrat VP nominee for his own de facto VP.
Lieberman. Bush never had a chosen Vice Presidential candidate from the opposing party, the Democrats, supporting Bush’s presidency as McCain has with Joe Lieberman. Now that is something very different.
RBG
It’s cute… Many of the Republicans on the blog… Self styled champions of the free market and capitalism, who associate being a Democrat with being a Communist… are criticizing Scott McClellan, ironically, because he’s probably making money by writing and selling a book.
Well, writing and selling a book is typically a commercial venture. It doesn’t make him a liar, wrong, or evil.
Listen people… from the lowly enlisted man swabbing the deck of the Nimitz, to the congressional page, to the Assistant Secretary of Transportation, to the White House Press Secretary… all these people are serving their country and they only ones who are accountable to us are the ones where were elected.
George Bush has done more to damage the Republican party and the conservative ideology than anyone. You people tearing him down here might want to rethink if its a good idea to compete with George for the record.
Never ends for W.
He calls them out, now, when he has a book to sell but the dishonesty sure didn’t bother him when he was sucking up to georgie boy.
58 Mr. Catshit. “When did you ever chide Mr. Catshit because of a lame duck presidency?”
My apologies for the misguided aspersions. How could I think you would ever call Bush “The Chimp?” Better still, I had the right guy all along, and seems he took my advice:
RBG: “Geez, bobbo. Why do I have to be the one to explain that you shouldn’t be referring to the “Bush Cabal,” “that Nazi Bush,” “The Chimp,” or the Bush anything now. Bush is history and you now must transfer the Aura of Evil to the Republican Party if you’re to get any mileage from this before the election.”
April 24th, 2008 DU #18
http://tinyurl.com/4eocht
****
49. bobbo: “Someone, anyone, tell me how McCain is not Bush III?”
53. A little late, but exactly as I predicted when I once chided Mr. Catshit and others for their fixation on a lame duck president in an election year.
RBG
#49
How did Bush get elected twice? Simple: the Democrats put up bigger losers than Bush. It is why we need more than two choices. For the past 20 years we have been restricted to choosing between crap and slightly worse crap.
Too little, Too late. Hang this guy along with the rest of them.
>>How did Bush get elected twice?
#1 – Daddy’s friends on the Supreme Court
#2 – Swift-boat liars.
#78 – You do realize that Leiberman is an independant and has supported Bush in lock-step for several years?
Not to mention that Lieberman’s real constituency is the tiny sliver of the Israeli population that are tired of waiting for their messiah, and are hoping to create an apocalypse. Most Israelis I know think he’s nutters.
I should say, most of the Jews, I know only one Israeli, and that’s hardly a representative sample. 😉
#82,
58 Mr. Catshit. “When did you ever chide Mr. Catshit because of a lame duck presidency?”
My apologies for the misguided aspersions. How could I think you would ever call Bush “The Chimp?”
It has never been my style to call Bush “the Chimp” or “Chimp in Chief” or similar name. I have much more respect for chimps than that. I do confess to earlier calling him “shrub” and “His Royal Highness King George the Worst”. Names that did, and still do, suit him better.
>>It has never been my style to call Bush “the
>>Chimp” or “Chimp in Chief” or similar name.
That’s because he’s neither a chimp (a fine and noble animal), nor the Chimp in Chief (which would be a fine and noble animal-in-chief).
He’s the CHIMPEROR-in-Chief. A silly, shallow, cowardly man, who believes himself to be the emperor, but runs around clearing brush and gibbering. LIKE a chimp, but not nearly as smart or eloquent. And a scaredy-cat to boot.
225 days left. Praise the Lord!
Who are these swift-boat liars?
90 Mister Mustard. The more culturally insightful and progressive among our society’s members have an understanding that it’s not really appropriate to currently refer to a person-of-presidential-office as simian-related out of respect and sensitivity to, well, you know.
RBG
I’m not thrilled with McCain, but I have to say that I’m kind of hoping he wins just to see MM commit harakiri over the prospect of another Republican administration.
All you guys whining about Bush lied, should realize that Congress would have approved of a war with Iraq no matter the reason the President gave, and Kerry would have given a supportive speech and said it was irresponsible to vote otherwise.
The only reason WMD was given as the reason was because Tony Blair wanted support from the UN.