NPR: Judging the Fallout of McClellan's Tell-All Memoir

Judging the Fallout of McClellan's Tell-All Memoir

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan responds to reporters' questions during the daily briefing on July 18, 2005.

Paul J. Richards, AFP/Getty Images

On yesterday's show, we took a closer look at a new book by Scott McClellan, former White House press secretary and Bush loyalist, which lambastes the Bush administration for its handling of the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina, among other things.

Here's more on the book from Politico, which broke the story:

* 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.

Are you surprised by any of these claims? How will it impact Bush's legacy and the current race for the White House? And do you find McClellan's scathing account to be a matter of disloyalty or courage?

McClellan: Plame Leak Case Was Turning Point
McClellan: Bush Embraced Political 'Game' Too Often

Geoffrey Bennett

Tags: Bush administration | Hurricane Katrina | Iraq | Scott McClellan | memoir

12:36 PM ET | 05-29-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

Too little too late BUT guarantee to sell a ton of books.

Send them all to The Hague to answer for what they did.

Sent by Thomas B | 6:03 PM ET | 05-29-2008

It's a guantlet thrown down to Congress to pick up and finally lay impeachment on the table. A revolution of American spirit must begin here or live in despair. "The King has No Clothes" and McClellan's willing to say it took a tremendous amount of courage. Now we wait and see if our truly committed representatives who took the oath to uphold the Constitution will do so for Democracy's sake or turn their backs to continue to hold the corporate hand that strives even now to bend, manipulate and own the truth through its media denouncements of McClellan's book.

Sent by letha | 7:55 PM ET | 05-29-2008

After all the books that have been written on the lead-up to the Iraq War and all of the Frontline Documentaries no one should be suprised at what is in this book.
The suprise is all of the so-called schock and dismay expressed by those inside the beltway and our national media.
If I (a person with only a HS Diploma) can listen to someone and know they are either a liar or an idiot and the media and the congress can't then our country is in serious trouble.

Sent by John G McGrath | 8:57 PM ET | 05-29-2008

it doesn't matter we are riding a
run a way horse while most are trying
to feed it a carrot...

Sent by karen | 11:34 PM ET | 05-29-2008

I think it's interesting that the Bush insiders aren't on television trying to dispell the truths spelled out in the book. Instead they want to focus on the fact that McClellan isn't loyal. The gall of them to not even deny what is being said. How idiotic is the media to not focus on the message, only the messenger?

Sent by Melle G | 3:39 PM ET | 06-03-2008

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