McClellan on Plame (This has to hurt!)

Real Clear Politics ^ | June 2, 2008 | Robert Novak

[dalight]

A partisan Democratic mantra began earlier in the book. McClellan writes George H.W. Bush's 1988 campaign "acquiesced to certain advisers, including Roger Ailes and the late Lee Atwater," who opposed Bush's "civility and decency." (McClellan, then 20 years old, played no part in that campaign.) McClellan contends that thanks to Rove in 2002, "the first cracks appeared in the facade of bipartisan comity."

[dalight]

Novak tears McClellan a new posterior oriface.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

The only person who could have given McClellan’s fantasies the serious case of Ned Beatyization they deserve.

[MovementConservative]

Liberal dummies are going to make McClellan and his publisher a lot of money buying this book. What a waste of space McClellan is.

[TChad]

Even McClellan's deputy press secretary Trent Duffy is piling on:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/01/AR2008060101922.html

Now he has no friends on the right, and only very temporary friends on the left.

[Admin Moderator]

Real Clear Politics is excerpt/link only.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1111944/posts

[Vigilanteman]

McClellan ran for president once. He won all these red states.

[Enchante]

Scott McClellan = dishonest vicious whore for the Demagogues

He has sold his soul for money + entree into ‘Rat/MSM cocktail parties

No decent person would ever want to know him

[roses of sharon]

Darn, so sorry!

[Aria]

I can’t imagine why this dweeb is going on O’Reilly - if BOR doesn’t shred McClellan than I’m going to join those who think BOR is nothing but a gas bag.

[FredZarguna]

The sad fact of the matter is that McClellan was not qualified for the job, never became qualified for the job, and was elevated to the position because he was a Bush loyalist from back home. McClellan's book, like McClellan's personality, offers nothing new. It's the literary equivalent of several hundred pages of "What He Said." Why would this surprise anyone? That is exactly what -- at a critical juncture in the life of the Bush White House -- McClellan's press briefings were like: "What the Handout said," was in fine and in sum what his doddering efforts at communications in front of the Washington Press Corp amounted to.

Now, because he could not work any faster and was finally tossed on his ear for it, Scott shall have a new master; and may he serve them as loyally as he did his President and putative friend. One thing he'll discover: the grass really is greener on the Left side of the fence, because on that side they will not question an inept boob who's useful to their agenda. Same boob, same facts, but this time around Scott will get a pass on the tough questions.

[FredZarguna]

That McClellan was nearly as inept as this McClellan. Although they say that McClellan was a genius at logistics. I doubt this McClellan is a genius at anything.

In a simpler age he could've worked for Paul Winchell or Edgar Bergen.

No, scratch that. Jerry Mahoney had it all over Scott. And even on the radio Charlie McCarthy was a better ventriloquist's dummy than Mr. McClellan.

[roses of sharon]

Wow, thanks for that link.

[SolidWood]

BOR is a gas bag and a putz. He called us FReepers racists and hate-mongers, while he repeatedly made vitriolic attacks against our Iraqi allies.

[Aria]

You’re right - I forgot about him trying to compare us to the rabid leftists.

I like your tag line.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Bob Novak has forgotten more about journalism, D.C. politics and government than Scott McClellan would ever know if he lived to be 150!

[TigersEye]

He does not mention that Armitage turned himself in to the Justice Department even before Patrick Fitzgerald was named as special prosecutor.

This is the part of the story that really burns me. There must be something criminal about allowing an investigation to take place when they already knew who leaked and that what was leaked wasn't a crime. If Fitzgerald didn't know all this then he would have to be the most incompetent prosecutor ever. In my mind he's a criminal too.

[TChad]

Wow, thanks for that link.

Coming from a close co-worker, that letter is devastating to McClellan's credibility. Peggy Noonan asks if McClellan is telling the truth. It sounds like the answer is no.

[Enchante]

Wow, that’s a great letter!

Of course, it could have been briefer:

“Dear Scott, you scurrilous pu##sy-weasel, were you lying to all of your friends and colleagues for the past 5+ years or are you lying to everyone in the public and media now?”

[endthematrix]

I agree, but I just get kicks that the Left really think the Rove is a diabolical genius. They are convinced Cheney eats puppies, but Rove is cunning, and had to be put down at any cost. Scotty just ain't convincing IMO.

[haroldeveryman]

“His robotic performances from the White House podium seemed only to disgorge what he had been told, and “What Happened” has the similar feel of someone else’s hand.
The book so mimics the Democratic line that Ari Fleischer, McClellan’s predecessor as press secretary, asked him last week whether he had a ghostwriter.”

This Mc Clellan rehabilitation project sure smells like election year Democrat politics. After his embarrassing stint as press secretary one would conclude that McClellan had to have a lot of help in writing this book. It’s like the old joke about how a midget managed to rape a seven foot woman. His friends put him up to it.

[Lancey Howard]

BUMP!

[Irish Eyes]

Thanks, and another bump for you.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Basically, Novak intimates McLellan is a stooge.

I don’t always like Novak, but he’s dead on right here.

[torchthemummy]

I am being completely sincere when I say that McClellan had one personal aptitude to being the Press Secretary: a dry, boring style that never made a good soundbite/clip for the MSM. Ari Fleisher and Tony Snow had real presence and clear intelligence which made them more apt to be used in soundbites/clips with the downside being that any "mistake" they made would come across as more theatrical than McClellan.

In the end of course McClellan, like any Press Secretary, is going to be utilized in soundbites/clips no matter what. I just believe the only effective style he had was to sound like a funeral director and thus lull some of the press into a gentle nap.

[weegee]

The Clintons ripped this country to sh!t back in 1993.

And blamed the OKC bombing on anyone who opposed the expansion of government into personal lives or listen to the then “new” talk radio.

When they left office, the peaceful exchange of power forever ended. We almost had riots in 2000 and 2004 when a Republican won the White House. Expect more anger in 2008 if it happens.

[SatinDoll]

McClellan obviously needed money as his book proposal was bland and the very left-wing publisher spiced it up. Scotty did not counter the “tweaking”.

IMHO Scotty has no ethics and no moral judgement. Money here is everything - at least to these people. To Hell with the truth! (sarcasm)

[weegee]

ALL of the big autobiographies have a ghost writer.

It may be one of those things that Obama shares with JFK...

[1035rep]

Thanks for the link. McClellan is looking more like a fool every minute.

[EQAndyBuzz]

McClellan got his retirement package paid for by left-wing lunatics.

[singfreedom]

.....and an innocent, good, family man went to prison because he didn’t keep detailed enough notes on all the people he talked to on the phone, and when. I will never forgive Patrick Fitzgerald for his blatant ineptitude.

[nathanbedford]

Oh, what a terrible web we weave when first we practice to appease!

[andyandval]

who leaked and that what was leaked wasn't a crime.

36 major "news" organizations agreed...

[dalight]

No. Novak intimates that McClellan is a fraud.

He is saying like several others that it appears that someone added all of the controversial vitriol essentially from Democrat talking points and charges made by other authors.

He is saying it doesn't sound like McClellan's hand writing.. and since Scott denies being ghostwritten. That goes to fraud..

[lexusppd]

All that aside, the revelations that you are "intrigued by Senator Obama's message" and that you don't know if you are a Republican anymore make me wonder if you ever had any convictions. If you were just drinking the Kool-Aid at the White House, have you now switched flavors with your newfound friends?

*********************************************************** The Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, it would seem. McClellan's own mother ran in Texas as a Republican, Democrat and Ind depending on which way she though the winds were blowing at the time of her drive to power.

People such as the McClellan's have no credibility and no character.

[Loyal Buckeye]

McClellan is an idiot.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Does Barry Hussein Obama know Ted Sorenson?

[syriacus]

they will not question an inept boob who's useful to their agenda.

Scottie McDupeDope

[True Republican Patriot]

“Temp Friends on the Left”!

Who would want to get near Keith Olberdork let alone think of HIM as a friend. McClellan is the lowest of low and a real putrid POS! The Left is ROTFLAH!!!!!

[Ann Archy]

WHO will EVER HIRE Scotty now??? He’s NOT Trustworthy!! No Republican will ever, and not even a Democrat will....ONLY the ENEMEDIA will hire him to do hit pieces on Republicans!!

[stratman1969]

WHO will EVER HIRE Scotty now??? He’s NOT Trustworthy!!

He'd fit in well working for that other liar, David Crock of Media Matters for George Soros.

[Ann Archy]

I think David Brock FLIPPED Scotty.

[Kaslin]

self ping

[newnhdad]

He reminds me of those soldiers that defected to N. Vietnam and N. Korea.. They are used for PR until the collective attention span moves on and they're tossed aside into some menial task like cleaning radios or making brooms.
His job will be hanging coats during the DNC convention.

[Dilbert56]

Novak tears McClellan a new posterior orifice.

After he'd spent so much time talking our the old one.

[Dilbert56]

Has it occurred to the Boy Blunder that Rove saying "I heard that too" is not a confirmation of anything? It certainly doesn't make Rove a "source" on Plame.

[Dilbert56]

The next President should:

• Accept that the media are not a conduit of information that needs to be managed. They are in the entertainment business, chasing ratings. As long as they pick and choose what gets covered there will be no balance.
• Do away with the press conference as an institution. No more having "reporters" gin up contorted assertions that happen to have a question mark at the end. No more 5-second sound bites dominating the coverage.
• If the perfumed princes have a question, they can e-mail the President's press secretary.
• Carve out an advertising budget. If the President's enemies can throw millions of dollars into propaganda, the President needs his own way to counter attack, w/o relying on the media.

[romanesq]

Anyone who knows journalism knows that Robert Novak is perhaps the last of what real journalists did, investigate and report stories.

Reading his book is like a history lesson and gives insight into what a Jimmy Carter II administration will be like under Obama.

And Novak did nothing more than reporting and had to live with slander against him in the Plame game.

[Larry381]

McClellan contends that thanks to Rove in 2002, "the first cracks appeared in the facade of bipartisan comity.

Bipartisan comity? What planet is this skunk living on? Even before Bush took office he was the victim of a concerted effort to delegitimize his presidency (remember Selected, Not Elected), a campaign that continues to this day.

Who ghostwrote this atrocity, Al Gore?

[popdonnelly]

McClellan would have been a big hit in the Confederacy, if they didn’t already have they’re own President.