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  • McClellan's tell all is not warm & fuzzy

    'm amazed no has pounced on this yet.

    Scott McClellan, Bush's White House Press Secretary from 2003-2006 has revealed very illuminating revelations about his tenure as the mouthpiece for the Bush Administration.

    Exclusive: McClellan whacks Bush, White House

    • McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.

    • He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.

    • He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.”

    • The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.

    • McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

    “One of the worst disasters in our nation’s history became one of the biggest disasters in Bush’s presidency. Katrina and the botched federal response to it would largely come to define Bush’s second term,” he writes. “And 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.”

    Regarding the Plame scandal:

    “I had allowed myself to be deceived into unknowingly passing along a falsehood,” McClellan writes. “It would ultimately prove fatal to my ability to serve the president effectively. I didn’t learn that what I’d said was untrue until the media began to figure it out almost two years later.

    “Neither, I believe, did President Bush. 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.”

    And what about that "liberal" media?

    “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.

    “As press secretary, I spent countless hours defending the administration from the podium in the White House briefing room. Although the things I said then were sincere, I have since come to realize that some of them were badly misguided.”

    This administration has been playing a 3 card Monty with us for a long time.
    Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

  • #2
    McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.
    Would have sworn it wasn't either one of them that was the source of the leak?
    I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
    For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

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    • #3
      As for the meeting with Rove and Libby, why would it be considered odd for the top aides of the POTUS and Vice POTUS to meet each other? What's the basis McClellan has for attaching something nefarious to it?
      I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
      For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

      Comment


      • #4
        “Neither, I believe, did President Bush. 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.”
        They were all in on it except Bush and poor Scott All these lies and Bush never gets mad at the liars, doesn't fire them, doesn't even acknowledge their lies, he's done nothing but cover for them. But he was out of the loop...

        Would have sworn it wasn't either one of them that was the source of the leak?
        Reporters have sworn they leaked - sworn under oath apparently.
        And both of them leaked, where did you get the idea only 1 person can leak information?

        Comment


        • #5
          Yawn. Y'know, if he'd had balls and integrity, he'd've come out sooner with this ****.

          Years in, and him coming out now...
          B♭3

          Comment


          • #6
            Not that Bush needed any more bad press, but this just helps confirm what most people know already.
            I'm consitently stupid- Japher
            I think that opinion in the United States is decidedly different from the rest of the world because we have a free press -- by free, I mean a virgorously presented right wing point of view on the air and available to all.- Ned

            Comment


            • #7
              All the Bush administration thralls seem to fit into 3 categories: The Evil, who actively aid and abeit the administration's crimes (Ari Fleisher); the Moronic, who have no capacity for independent thinking (Dana Perino, Douglas Feith), and the Cowardly, who recognize what's going on but won't speak out about it until after they're out of office and have books to peddle. McClellan seems to fit both the second and third categories.

              Former aide blames Bush for leak deceit

              WASHINGTON - Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan blames President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for efforts to mislead the public about the role of White House aides in leaking the identity of a CIA operative.

              In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, McClellan recounts the 2003 news conference in which he told reporters that aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were "not involved" in the leak involving operative Valerie Plame.

              "There was one problem. It was not true," McClellan writes, according to a brief excerpt released Tuesday. "I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff and the president himself."

              Bush's chief of staff at the time was Andrew Card.

              The excerpt, posted on the Web site of publisher PublicAffairs, renews questions about what went on in the West Wing and how much Bush and Cheney knew about the leak. For years, it was McClellan's job to field — and often duck — those types of questions.

              Now that he's spurring them, answers are equally hard to come by.

              White House press secretary Dana Perino said it wasn't clear what McClellan meant in the excerpt. "The president has not and would not ask his spokespeople to pass on false information," she said.

              McClellan turned down interview requests Tuesday.

              Plame maintains the White House quietly outed her to reporters. Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, said the leak was retribution for his public criticism of the Iraq war. The accusation dogged the administration and made Plame a cause celebre among many Democrats.

              McClellan's book, "What Happened," isn't due out until April, and the excerpt released Monday was merely a teaser. It doesn't get into detail about how Bush and Cheney were involved or reveal what happened behind the scenes.

              In the fall of 2003, after authorities began investigating the leak, McClellan told reporters that he'd personally spoken to Rove, who was Bush's top political adviser, and Libby, who was Cheney's chief of staff.

              "They're good individuals, they're important members of our White House team, and that's why I spoke with them, so that I could come back to you and say that they were not involved," McClellan said at the time.

              Both men, however, were involved. Rove was one of the original sources for the newspaper column that identified Plame. Libby also spoke to reporters about the CIA officer and was convicted of lying about those discussions. He is the only person to be charged in the case.

              Since that news conference, however, the official White House stance has shifted and it has been difficult to get a clear picture of what happened behind closed doors around the time of the leak.

              McClellan's flat denials gave way to a steady drumbeat of "no comment." And Bush's original pledge to fire anyone involved in the leak became a promise to fire anyone who "committed a crime."

              In a CNN interview earlier this year, McClellan made no suggestion that Bush knew either Libby or Rove was involved in the leak. McClellan said his statements to reporters were what he and the president "believed to be true at the time based on assurances that we were both given."

              Bush most recently addressed the issue in July after commuting Libby's 30-month prison term. He acknowledged that some in the White House were involved in the leak. Then, after repeatedly declining to discuss the ongoing investigation, he said the case was closed and it was time to move on.
              The latest news and headlines from Yahoo News. Get breaking news stories and in-depth coverage with videos and photos.
              Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

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              • #8
                So, good 'ole Scottie was just following orders. Heckuva job, there, pal. Thanks a lot. And now you will try to get rich on a "tell all" that is years late and billions short. **** you.

                -Arrian
                grog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!

                The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Why should we give this guy any credit? He lubed up and bent over with the rest of the frauds.

                  edit: and what part of "high crimes and misdemeanours" does the congress not understand?

                  I mean Billy Boy got hauled over the coals for getting the world's worst blow job from from some ignorant fat hog of a woman, and all because the female version of Cyrano de Bergerac falsely claimed he'd once shown her his johnson.

                  Bill Clinton must be as mad as hell about this: "The Republicans lie us into a war that kills tens of thousands and nothing happens, but I lie about consensual fellatio and get the third degree...WTF"
                  Last edited by Agathon; May 28, 2008, 12:02.
                  Only feebs vote.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Agathon, don't you realize that in puritan America, sex is always considered worse than violence?

                    Stylized nudity in the Starbucks logo gets threatened with a boycott, but stylized violence with armored, overmuscular men with a penchant for real-life crime piling on top of each other in a homoerotic fashion over a leather object? That's perfectly okay.

                    Hot Coffee gets the third degree, gets plastered all over the news; Mass Effect's sex scenes are the crux of the controversy. The violence in those games? Passing mention.

                    The gay theme kicks But I'm a Cheerleader to a rated R; a wisp of sexuality in Amelie sends it to R-land. Live Free or Die Hard? PG-13.

                    Thus, lying about things and heading to war, okay; lying about things and getting a blowjob... what'll I tell my children?!
                    B♭3

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by DinoDoc
                      McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.
                      Would have sworn it wasn't either one of them that was the source of the leak?
                      Not one but both. Libby was the administration's designated fall guy as is typical for junior members. The higher ups who order everything never seem to face justice.
                      Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Berzerker


                        They were all in on it except Bush and poor Scott All these lies and Bush never gets mad at the liars, doesn't fire them, doesn't even acknowledge their lies, he's done nothing but cover for them. But he was out of the loop...
                        You forgot to say that when one is convicted of perjury, he's quickly pardoned.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Q Cubed


                          Hot Coffee gets the third degree, gets plastered all over the news;
                          Just ask Jackie Chiles and Kramer about hot coffee and 3rd degree burns.
                          Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
                          "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
                          He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Oerdin
                            All the Bush administration thralls seem to fit into 3 categories: The Evil, who actively aid and abeit the administration's crimes (Ari Fleisher); the Moronic, who have no capacity for independent thinking (Dana Perino, Douglas Feith), and the Cowardly, who recognize what's going on but won't speak out about it until after they're out of office and have books to peddle. McClellan seems to fit both the second and third categories.
                            Christine Todd Whitman doesn't fall into any of those categories.
                            Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              What category of thrall does she fit into, Che?

                              -Arrian
                              grog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!

                              The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.

                              Comment

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