Dear Scott McClellan
Dear Scott,
Just watched you on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
Strangely, having said nothing new or original in your book, having revealed little or nothing that we didn’t already know, your book nevertheless seems like the one book that the President and his inner cirlce will not forgive. You were in the inner circle, you were supposed to be a loyalist to the end. You told the and are telling the unflattering truth and you will not find yourself on the receiving end of forgiveness any time in the near future.
For what its worth, I feel a tremendous amount of empathy for you. Through the entire interview with Olbermann, you seemed to alternate between chastened, ashamed, and regretful. You can’t be in a good place having been disillusioned. Maybe its because I can see myself in you - I can see myself getting sucked into the strangely, eternal now of the White House, into the pressure of being the Press Secretary, of being the face of the Administration. Maybe it’s because you seem like a decent, naive person who really is having a hard time facing the consequences of doing all the wrong things for all the right reasons.
I guess, unlike the people who say you should have spoken up then, when it might have made a difference, I can see that there’s almost no way you could have done anything. You were in the job you were in not because you were naive, but because you were a believer, and a good one. I have no doubt you wanted to do the right thing. You believed you were serving your nation, you were being a patriot. I wish you hadn’t been such a strong believer and I wish you had somehow managed to not be the bland, agreeable, likeable face of the Bush Administration for so long.
Scott, you said repeatedly that you were swept away in the post 9/11 fervor, the desire to believe in the Administration, in the President, and that you like so many Americans couldn’t admit that the President was lying, that he wasn’t honest. I guess at the end of the day, I want to be angry at you, to yell and proclaim you betrayed us and all we stand for. But watching you with Olbermann I didn’t see a despicable person. I saw an entirely decent, naive, foolish man who believed in and who trusted too hard in the wrong people.
I don’t believe you entirely. You proclaim your dislike of the “permanent campaign” but you were an integral cog in that campaign and a key player in its most utterly ruthless incarnation. You pretend to deplore the permanent campaign but your entire career has benefitted from it.
I get that you had to step out of the closed world of Washington DC to get perspective, to in fact join the reality based community. You’ve come a long way. Now it’s time to finish the journey.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Well put, Glenden! I, too, am half pissed at the dude and, at the same time, half understanding, given his position at the time and all. But while the likes of Ken Bingham are making excuses for what we have always known to be the truth, I can hardly wait for the next insider to come clean with the American public.
May 30th, 2008 at 6:41 am
This is NOT good news for Ari Fliesher, the blond bombshell or the other lying-head.
May 30th, 2008 at 8:00 am
The truth will out, as they say. There will be more, I’m sure. I saw a little of the Olbermann interview and I found it interesting when they pointed out that McClellan’s critics have focused on personal attacks rather that refuting what he has said. This story is not over.
May 30th, 2008 at 9:22 am
I’ve got zero sympathy for McClellan. A decent, honest person would never have worked for the Bush propaganda operation for five years. And he wasn’t even that good at it, his White House colleagues said his only qualification for the job was loyalty to Bush. Guess they were wrong, turns out he was utterly unqualified!
May 30th, 2008 at 11:30 am
I thought McClellan was on an internship when he first came onto the scene.
I can just see bush/cheney now…” We need to find a young moron to stand in front of the old morons while we make away with the loot…know what I’m sayin?
Channel Z television all the way.
May 30th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Early on in the Olbermann interview, Scott says Bush invaded Iraq because of 9-11. I guess he didn’t hear that Paul O’neil, Richard Clark and Bob Woodward had all verified the invasion was their plan on day one in the White House. Come on Scott! How could I have known this five years ago and you’re still ignorant about it.