05/29/2008
White House, Right-Wing Apoplectic McClellan Exposed Their Lies
The White House and conservatives are furious at the revelations unleashed in former Press Secretary Scott McClellan's memoir, which has zoomed to #1 on Amazon
Via Think Progress: "Current Press Secretary Dana Perino said McClellan was obviously 'disgruntled,' while Fleischer said he was 'heartbroken,' and Bartlett called the book 'total crap.' MSNBC’s Kevin Corke reported this afternoon that White House officials, on background, went even further, calling McClellan a 'traitor' and likening him to Benedict Arnold. He said the White House was 'upset,' substituting that word for a word he said he could not repeat on television."
The truth is sometimes hard to hear, eh?
One thing that came out in McClellan's Today show appearance today was that Bush authorized the selective leak of the NIE. McClellan said he confronted Bush about it: "I talked about the conversation we had. I walked onto Air Force One, it was right after an event we had, it was down in the south, I believe it was North Carolina. And I walk onto Air Force One and a reporter had yelled a question to the President trying to ask him a question about this revelation that had come out during the legal proceedings. The revelation was that it was the President who had authorized, or, enable Scooter Libby to go out there and talk about this information. And I told the President that that's what the reporter was asking. He was saying that you, yourself, was the one that authorized the leaking of this information. And he said "yeah, I did."
Congressman Wexler has called on McClellan to testify before the House Judiciary Committee...
And guess who's weighing in now, saying he knew McClellan "better than any other White House correspondent or Washington reporter"? Fake news reporter/escort Jeff Gannon.
Watch TWO CLIPS, a news report on the White House reactions and selections from McClellan's Today show appearance, AFTER THE JUMP...
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Posted 12:59 PM EST by Andy in Books, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, News, Republican Party | Permalink
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What I want to know is what the book has to saty about White House whore "Jeff Gannon" (aka. James D. Guckert) and his many overnight stays. Who was he fucking? Rove? Scottie? Dubbya?
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | May 29, 2008 1:07:27 PM
Oh my! Imagine it, a President of the United States using his LAWFUL authority to, gasp! - declassify information and authorize the release to the media!
The most entertaining part of this is watching the left's collective orgasm.
Posted by: Robert | May 29, 2008 1:09:47 PM
While I'm sure a lot of the book is true and I can't wait to read it at my local library, we need to remember that he was fired and my have a bit of an ax to grind here. I've already heard some things on CNN saying that in his book he talks about meetings he was never a part of. Like I said, most of it has some truth but I'm wondering if some has been exaggerated as well to sell books. Because let's face it, it's not about telling the truth in this book. It is about making money.
Posted by: Matt | May 29, 2008 1:12:19 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/29/mcclellans-biggest-revela_n_104082.html
BIGGER!!!
he says Bush directly authorized the leak of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.
You know, what scooter libby took the fall for and is technicaly by law considered treason
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | May 29, 2008 1:13:53 PM
Jeff Gannon
I mean Robert
Get your nose out of cheney's ass
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | May 29, 2008 1:15:58 PM
LMAO! I keep envisioning Mr. Burns, wrenching his hands while making his standard pronouncement, "exxxxxxcellent."
HAAAAAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA! Now perhaps we can witness the first hanging execution of a real set of traitors ever in the history of the U.S. I'm enjoying the thought of Bush's entire cabinet having just taken a collective dump in their already skid-marked panties.
Posted by: FizziekruntNT | May 29, 2008 1:16:18 PM
Robert, you Bushies will do anything to protect your boy king.
Sadly, you can't admit that you were absolutely mistaken about your support for what has been the most disastrous presidency in the history of our democracy.
I know it's hard to admit you were wrong, but it's what adults do.
Posted by: Tread | May 29, 2008 1:16:51 PM
ROBERT...I assure you it is far more entertaining to watch Republican wingnuts try to ignore the fact that Scooter Libby, with the blessing of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, exposed the identity of a United States CIA COVERT AGENT. This isn't going to play well in November. (And by the way, why don't you go back to posting on whatever hideous Republican blog you came from?)
Posted by: peterparker | May 29, 2008 1:19:14 PM
Matt,
McClellan was not fired. He left voluntarily. I don't know why you're making that up. From Fox News (http://tinyurl.com/6l4rph), Bush said this about McClellan:
"First of all, I thank Scott for his service to our country. I don't know whether or not the press corps realizes this, but his is a challenging assignment dealing with you all on a regular basis. And I thought he handled his assignment with class, integrity. He really represents the best of his family, our state and our country. It's going to be hard to replace Scott. But, nevertheless, he's made the decision and I accept it.
One of these days he and I are going to be rocking on chairs in Texas, talking about the good old days and his time as the Press Secretary. And I can assure you I will feel the same way then that I feel now, that I can say to Scott, job well done."
Posted by: Tread | May 29, 2008 1:22:20 PM
You know how on the Daily Show when there's a ridiculously dishy controversy brewing and John Stewart pulls a giant soda and a bucket of popcorn out from under his desk?
This is just like that. I for one am highly entertained.
Posted by: crispy | May 29, 2008 1:25:32 PM
You know, in our many discussions about the Democratic Primaries, ZEKE warned us that there were visitors posting who were actually Republicans--they weren't going to vote for Hillary or Barack anyway. They just wanted to rile the rest of us up, and create animosity on this blog. I think some of them are making themselves known on this thread.
Defending the Bush Administration in any way is something only a Republican could do...or a pro-football coach.
I think Papa Bush may even be totally fed up with Bush:the Idiot now.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | May 29, 2008 1:27:44 PM
I always thought it was primarily McClellan who Gannon was fucking (I suspect he was doin' W too, evidenced by W's penchant for fondling bald heads).
Posted by: Jersey | May 29, 2008 1:29:35 PM
Christ of the Andes, Matt! Wake the fuck up!
But why should anyone expect more from you when the PROFESSIONAL commentators are all treating McClellan's charges as NEWS! The only thing really new about it is that it's coming from another insider.
If they had ANY decency, any INTEGRITY, and TRUE patriotism, they wouldn't be doing their usual dog and pony fake impartiality routine by presenting "balanced" responses from Bush Reich members Barlett and Fleisher [both with MAJOR gay face despite their vaginal spouses] et al.—all whom any historian with balls will one day categorize along with Bush fils as WAR CRIMINALS. Instead, talking heads like Meredith would be saying,
"In his new book, Scott McClellan gives further confirmation to what REAL journalists have been reporting for YEARS: the invasion of Iraq was built upon a spider's web of lies. For example, we refer you [and someone named Matt out there in Blogville] to Bill Moyers' incontrovertible, in-depth expose last year "Buying the War" which can be viewed online at
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html"
QUOTE: "'Buying the War' examines the press coverage in the lead-up to the war as evidence of a paradigm shift in the role of journalists in democracy and asks, four years after the invasion, what's changed?"
Repulsively, we could ask the same thing THIS MORNING!
Posted by: Leland Frances | May 29, 2008 1:30:09 PM
Tread,
I'm not making that up. That is what was said on ABC news last night. I have seen your clip from Fox News. Doesn't Fox news have a proponderance for pandering to the rights needs and whims?
Posted by: Matt | May 29, 2008 1:33:18 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/29/scott-mcclellan-white-hou_n_104049.html
Rice just got nixed as mccain's VP (yeah right, like they were really going to)
You have to scroll down the article a bit, but basicaly he says Rice was way too acomodating to cheney and never stood up to him. Cheney who has worse approval ratings than bush.
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | May 29, 2008 1:33:33 PM
Yeah, they want McClellan to testify before the Judiciary Committee, but not people like Karl Rove, oh no siree! The NeoCons can dish it out, but they sure can't take it, can they? Scumbags!
Posted by: Jack | May 29, 2008 1:35:44 PM
Leland,
I'm awake. Can you ever make a blog comment without using foul language or it being a mile long?
I'm not supporting Bush at all. He sucks. He is without a doubt the worst president. He is to blame for our economy, the war, and the decay of civil rights in this country.
I'm just verbalizing what I have heard on the news and putting it up for discussion. I'm not here to defend the sorry Republicans who can't admit they were wrong or the pitiful Democrats who can't stand up to him.
Posted by: Matt | May 29, 2008 1:39:27 PM
Nothing new, the strategy of the Bush Adminstration and the republican party has always been to destroy dissenters. They know that if you say something often enough, people will come to believe it.
It's just sad that the TV news shows continue to give these people a voice rather than enagaging in anything close to "hard journalism."
Posted by: qjersey | May 29, 2008 1:39:32 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/29/former-bush-aide-mclellan_n_104102.html
A former Bush aid has come forward defending mcclellan
Says he is telling the truth
Peterparker
Don't bogart that popcorn. this isgetting good.
Schadenfreude
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | May 29, 2008 1:45:33 PM
All right, MATT, maybe we shouldn't gang tackle you, but these miserable bastards have gotten away with impeachable offenses for years. They still may never pay for what they've done, but atleast they're now being exposed.
I hope this shit can rub off on John McCain(even though I don't hate him...poor thing is so boring).
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | May 29, 2008 1:57:05 PM
My prediction? A record number of pardons come this December. Bush is already filling out the forms.
Posted by: davefromtampa | May 29, 2008 1:57:58 PM
The apoplectic right-wing neocons are already stirring up the rumor mill with VERY thinly veiled threats to "out" McClellan. These, by the way, are the same people (Gannon/Guckert, etc.) who decry outing when it is used to expose closeted gay men who actually PROMOTE and VOTE FOR anti-gay legislation, yet somehow it's OK to do it to a fellow Republican when he has the audacity to go public telling the truth about the shameful, deceitful and downright illegal things he has witnessed while serving in the inner sanctum of the Bush/Cheney regime.
Here's what Gretchen Carlson had to say on Fox and Friends this morning:
"Scott McClellan better not have any skeletons IN HIS CLOSET. I hope he DIDIN'T DO ANYTHING THAT HE DOESN'T WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW ABOUT, because we all have, and all of his SECRETS are going to be COMING OUT. [EMPHASIS mine]
That's about as THINLY veiled as one can get.
I told my husband, when the McClellan story broke, that the right-wingers would have him outed before the sun went down.
It's good to see that they are as predictable as ever.
Posted by: Zeke | May 29, 2008 1:59:34 PM
The Bush administration is making up more lies and attempting to spread more propaganda to discredit this book. Are we really not supposed to catch on by this point? What a fucking insult to Americans we have in the White House.
What makes me sick to my stomach is every time one of the Bushies says that McClellan is "disloyal to the President". This isn't a monarchy or even a dictatorship (yet). An American citizen's loyalty is to the country as a whole, not to an asshole who has done more harm to this country than any person or event in its history.
Posted by: Paul | May 29, 2008 2:06:41 PM
Not a good day for comity. What does McCain say about this?
Posted by: anon | May 29, 2008 2:44:37 PM
Matt,
This "disgruntled, fired" employee meme has been blatantly created by the panicking White House and conservatives to cover their asses. The Fox News video shows clearly that Bush valued McClellan. You answered your own question when you said Fox News has "a proponderance for pandering to the right's needs and whims". Why would that story change suddenly after this book has come out? You repeating that misdirection set off my wingnut alarm (many apologies).
What's really disappointing is that McClellan had the opportunity to air this dirty laundry years ago, but was too cowardly to hang it on the line until Bush's approval ratings were solidly in the toilet.
Posted by: Tread | May 29, 2008 3:17:38 PM
Employers always label whistleblowers as "disgruntled" whether the person reveals corruption in business or government, the suits still think that people will accept "disgruntled" as a cover. That may have been the case in 1950 but not in 2008.
Seriously, how can the Rethugs excuse outing a covert intelligence officer who was investigating Iran's attempts at getting nuclear material? What was the cost of that outing? Did American or foreign operatives die because they had associated with or helped Plame? Karl Rove and company didn't care.
Treason is acceptable as long as it is committed by a Republican in the service of the GOP. I'm still amazed that some CIA operatives haven't dug up dirt send Rove to prison.
Dana Perino, the new White House Press Secretary, is the genius who had never heard of the Bay of Pigs! How does anyone become a member of the White House staff and not know basic contemporary American history--especially one of the greatest military/political fiascoes of the Cold War?
(http://wonkette.com/politics/dana-perino/dana-perino-dumber-than-everyone-else-in-history-331981.php)
But I forget, this is the Bush White House and intelligence is not the most important criteria for getting a job there.
Finally, Jeff Gannon? Why has the White House never revealed how an active prostitute who had an web site that advertised Gannon's escort services got press credentials?
Posted by: noah | May 29, 2008 4:13:02 PM
NOAH
I have always thought that the Bush house of cards started crumbeling because CIA guys started leaking stuff soon after the Valerie Plame thing.
The sh@t really started to hit the fan for Bush soon after the outing = Don't f@ck with the CIA
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | May 29, 2008 4:21:53 PM
Forget the White House! The "Mainstream" media has known about "Gannon"/Guckert since Day Once. And they said nothing!!!!
Zeke is right. They're going to "out" Scottie in retaliation.
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | May 29, 2008 5:01:21 PM
Has anyone considered that this guy might be a … hero?
having been called "traitor" makes me… laugh? Other?
Disgruntled or not, I think he knows what purpose he is serving.
It is really amazing how stupid the Bush team thinks the American public is— that they don't have the defense mechanism to realize the corner they have been put into.
Republican or not, bravo Scott McClellan!
Posted by: larry Kazal | May 29, 2008 5:33:04 PM
McClellan has always struck me as a jerk. I don't believe a word of his spiel without independent evidence.
If his allegations were true, a "tell-all" book is NOT how he would've brought them to light. Seems to me he's looking for a pay day and what better way get it than this?
Posted by: queendru | May 29, 2008 6:43:59 PM
WHY has Bush not been impeached?
I want to see his ugly little head seperated from his shoulders...
Posted by: Tex... | May 29, 2008 7:36:16 PM
Ok, so I am a repub that cannot stand W! I want him out of office more than many dems, however, this man was fired. He is disgruntled because W would not support his "mother" for governor of Texas. Sour grapes and an axe to grind. I would love to pin something on W, but McClellan is as credible as his press releases. NOT. Sorry, but possibly Robert has a point. We are hovering, searching for blood and all we get is a press secretery that was fired. And oh yeah, Mama didn't get the governor's office. Not exactly headline news!
Posted by: RB | May 29, 2008 9:01:29 PM
The opposing camps, each regarding the veracity of McClellan, should have no difficulty parsing the facts of the history of the bush administration with an eye to the truth. There are way too many corroborated, anecdotal truths revealed time after time that your only defense in ignoring them is that your good head was too buried in impenetrable sand to notice. Does the evisceration of every single administration critic not ring a bell? We play this game again and again. They try to subvert the dialog with shit like "not the Scotty we knew". All in unison.
The world is in a state of tumult and chaos in no small part due to the efforts of these nihilistic people. How else can you explain the course this country has charted. What vision of the future could you point to to illustrate the ideology of these creatures? Does it make any sense to thinking people? bush seems to me a politically savvy player who cannot think beyond getting to first base; he is in way over his head. cheney is inexplicable beyond a defining hatred (his bad heart? a lesbian daughter? waking up beside the unmentionable lynne?); who knows. their objectives are too rarified to contemplate; but their methodology is obvious. They do not convince with the gospel of a good people. They inculcate with facile lies repeated over and over by loyal minions. Too many of us choose to listen.
The diminution of the substantive credibility of the United States in eight short years is astonishing. Think about it.
Posted by: Marcus Santora | May 29, 2008 11:03:52 PM
Why does someone's purported sexuality always become an issue to (obstensibly) discredit him/her? How relevant is what McClellan does with his willy or anyone else's to the central point of this story? If sexuality must be invoked, how about this: It took him a while--no one is claiming that McClennan is smart--to realize that BushCo fucked him over for almost 4 years by exploiting his loyalty and true-believer status; sure he was a willing tool, in more ways than one, but that shouldn't detract from the essential truthfulness of his book. Gay, straight, Kinsey 3--who gives a shit?
Posted by: Keller | May 30, 2008 12:49:18 PM
Hmmm...
Disgruntled employee writes a book after he is one of the only employees so incompetent that even the President faulted for being too loyal had to can his pathetic ass, thousands of mouth-breathing, hate-filled liberals rush to buy his book which contradicts the well-known fact that Richard Armitage confessed he was the one who leaked Plame's name (who's lies are documented in the bipartisan, unanimous findings of the Senate Sellect Intelligence Committee Report, and who was never covert in the first place, hence Armitage's freedom) ...and how does this add up to liberals being anything but deranged, neurotic, delusional suckers again?
Posted by: On a Side Note... | Aug 10, 2008 7:41:46 AM
Hmmm...
Disgruntled employee writes a book after he is one of the only employees so incompetent that even the President faulted for being too loyal had to can his pathetic ass, thousands of mouth-breathing, hate-filled liberals rush to buy his book which contradicts the well-known fact that Richard Armitage confessed he was the one who leaked Plame's name (who's lies are documented in the bipartisan, unanimous findings of the Senate Sellect Intelligence Committee Report, and who was never covert in the first place, hence Armitage's freedom) ...and how does this add up to liberals being anything but deranged, neurotic, delusional suckers again?
Posted by: On a Side Note... | Aug 10, 2008 7:42:36 AM
Hmmm...
Disgruntled employee writes a book after he is one of the only employees so incompetent that even the President faulted for being too loyal had to can his pathetic ass, thousands of mouth-breathing, hate-filled liberals rush to buy his book which contradicts the well-known fact that Richard Armitage confessed he was the one who leaked Plame's name (who's lies are documented in the bipartisan, unanimous findings of the Senate Sellect Intelligence Committee Report, and who was never covert in the first place, hence Armitage's freedom) ...and how does this add up to liberals being anything but deranged, neurotic, delusional suckers again?
Posted by: On a Side Note... | Aug 10, 2008 7:42:46 AM
Hmmm...
Disgruntled employee writes a book after he is one of the only employees so incompetent that even the President faulted for being too loyal had to can his pathetic ass, thousands of mouth-breathing, hate-filled liberals rush to buy his book which contradicts the well-known fact that Richard Armitage confessed he was the one who leaked Plame's name (who's lies are documented in the bipartisan, unanimous findings of the Senate Sellect Intelligence Committee Report, and who was never covert in the first place, hence Armitage's freedom) ...and how does this add up to liberals being anything but deranged, neurotic, delusional suckers again?
Posted by: On a Side Note... | Aug 10, 2008 7:42:59 AM