by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright June 20, 2008
ll Rights Reserved.

uilt-ridden for willfully spewing White House propaganda during his tenure as press secretary from July 17, 2003 to April 26, 2006, Scott McClellan testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee. Before he uttered one word, the White House and its congressional supporters were busy discrediting the 40-year-old University of Texas, Austin graduate. “Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House. We are puzzled. It is sad. This is not the Scott we knew,” said White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, serving up a healthy dose of smoke. After leaving the White House and coming to his senses, McClellan confessed his sins in a transparent memoir “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception.” Since going public May 27, McClellan's book climbed to No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List.

      While the White House is busy discrediting McClellan, the more he's denounced the more credible the tale. With only 28% approval ratings, it's obvious that President George W. Bush is the one with the credibility problem. Yes, McClellan is not the same person who obediently followed orders and violated his ethical principles to serve as a pawn to White spin meister Karl Rove. Rove now proudly serves as Fox News analyst in their ongoing efforts to trash presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Il.) candidacy, hoping against hope to save presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). McClellan's book couldn't come at a worse time as McCain struggles to distance himself from a White House. A June 21 Newsweek poll puts Obama up by 15%. Unfortunately for the White House, there's too much corroborating evidence to dismiss McClellan out of hand.

      Perino got it right that this is not the Scott they knew. Unlike others that left the White House, like former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell or former Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, McClellan showed heroic levels of political courage confessing how the White House chewed up principle and spit out propaganda. “This is a very secretive White House,” Scott told the Senate panel. “There's some things they would prefer not to be talked about,” especially the sordid chapter of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby divulging the identity covert CIA operative Valerie Plame. McClellan is only partially correct when he says, “this is a very secretive White House.” Bush's predecessor, President Bill Clinton, was no slouch when it came to blowing smoke, especially over the Monica Lewinsky affair. McClellan's memoir was an act of political courage.

      Administration officials are busy discrediting McClellan, rather than accepting some blame for playing fast-and-loose with the facts. McClellan broke the White House code of silence, something akin to what the late author Mario Puzo called in his best selling book “The Godfather” the Mafia's oath of “Omertha.” “I think Scott has probably told everything he doesn't know, so I don't know if anyone should expect him to say anything new today,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. Taking out the hatchets indicates McClellan struck a raw nerve. Contrary to his own self-interests, what could be more suicidal in politics than biting the hand that feeds you. McClellan knows he's virtually unemployable in the same circles. He confessed not for self-aggrandizement but to purge his soul. McClellan realized that there's something more important at stake than protecting the White House spin machine.

      McClellan was especially troubled by the Valerie Plame affair in which he, as Bush's press secretary, was asked by White House Chief of Staff Andy Card to tell the press that Cheney's chief of staff “I Lewis “Scooter” Libby had nothing to do with the leak. “I got on the phone with Scooter Libby and asked him point-blank, ‘Were you involved in this [the leak] in any way.' And he assured me in unequivocal terms that he was not,” said McClellan, realizing he'd been used by Card. Libby was convicted March 6, 2007 of perjury and obstruction of justice and sentenced June 5, 2007 to 30 months in club fed. Not unexpected, Bush commuted his sentence July 2, 2007. While doubting whether Bush ordered the leak, McClellan was less certain about Cheney. Knowing Cheney's management style, it's highly doubtful that Libby would have leaked Plame's name to the press without his boss's orders.

      McClellan told all not for book sales or self-aggrandizement but to set the record straight after being used as a propaganda tool. As McClellan points out, far bigger tales were told by the White House in its run-up to the Iraq War. Scott knows he was used in Rove and Cheney's spin machine, covering up the Plame mess and selling the public on invading Iraq. For some unknown reason, McClellan sought fit to recount Bush's failed recollection about past cocaine use. He now concludes that it showed a lack of character carrying through to the Iraq War and Plame episode. White House officials miscalculated the degree of guilt and regret McClellan felt after learning he was used in a larger propaganda battle to deny the Plame affair and sell the Iraq War. Unlike other administration officials, McClellan's the first to come clean, tell the truth and try to clear his good name.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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