Bush White House: Scott strikes back
Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 9:19 AM by Mark Murray
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White House
How bad are things now for President Bush? The presumptive GOP nominee won't even attend multiple fundraisers where Bush will be in attendance (McCain only attended the one that took place in his own home state). Now, Bush's former press secretary has written a tell-all that just, well, trashes the West Wing. The Washington Post: "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.’”
“McClellan includes the charges in a 341-page book, ‘What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception,’ that delivers a harsh look at the White House and the man he served for close to a decade. He describes Bush as demonstrating a ‘lack of inquisitiveness,’ says the White House operated in ‘permanent campaign’ mode, and admits to having been deceived by some in the president's inner circle about the leak of a CIA operative's name."
The New York Times: Mr. McClellan’s book … is the first negative account by a member of the tight circle of Texans around Mr. Bush… He is harsh about the administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, saying it ‘spent most of the first week in a state of denial’ and ‘allowed our institutional response to go on autopilot.’ Mr. McClellan blames Mr. Rove for one of the more damaging images after the hurricane: Mr. Bush’s flyover of the devastation of New Orleans. When Mr. Rove brought up the idea, Mr. McClellan writes, he and Dan Bartlett, a top communications adviser, told Mr. Bush it was a bad idea because he would appear detached and out of touch. But Mr. Rove won out, Mr. McClellan writes.”
Politico, which broke the news of this book, adds, “Among the most explosive revelations in the 341-page book…:
--McClellan charges that Bush relied on ‘propaganda’ to sell the war.
--He says the White House press corps went too easy on the administration.
--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 the full facts.
--McClellan asserts that the aides -- Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and 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.”
