Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's new
tell-all book, "What Happened," about his time in the Bush administration is receiving all kinds of attention from liberal bloggers. Most point to McClellan's assertion that the WH used propaganda to sell the war in Iraq and that McClellan felt he often gave "misleading" information to the public. But these political diatribes should always be put in proper context. Is McClellan heroic, or even brave, for trashing administration at a time when the president has record-low approval ratings? McClellan seems more opportunistic than anything, finally swinging back at officials who made him their fall guy and cashing in on an increasingly unpopular former boss. If he were truly brave, he would have resigned while the events chronicled in his book were happening, ala
Paul O'Neill.
After the jump are the top five responses to the McClellan story from liberal bloggers:
Salon's Glen Greenwald
says McClellan's admissions should "forever slay the single most ludicrous myth in our political culture: The 'Liberal Media'"
Matt Yglesias
finds himself desensitized: "It's a shocking truth about our current
state of affairs, but not a truth that any longer has the capacity to
shock me."
TNR's Jason Zengerle
says McClellan's book is about, well, selling books:
Put aside the fact that McClellan has ample
personal reasons for writing a harsh book about the Bush White Hosue
(two of those reasons are named Rove and Libby). Writing a harsh
tell-all memoir of the Bush years is just good business sense at this
point.
Firedoglake's Scarecrow
refuses to let McClellan off the hook:
For three years, Scott McClellan stood before the White House press
corp and humiliated himself, saying things he knew were probably false
or misleading, while pretending that by dissembling for his President
he was serving his country.
And CQ Politics' David Corn
wants McClellan to apologize:
Apparently McClellan has seen the light. Well, where's his plea for
forgiveness? If he were truly contrite about his involvement in a
deceptive, propaganda-wielding administration, McClellan could
demonstrate his sincerity by pledging that all profits from his belated
truth-telling will go to charities supporting the families of American
soldiers killed or injured in Iraq.
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