Move To Discredit McClellan For Anti-Bush Memoir Has Begun (UPDATED)
Yesterday we did this post that detailed former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s new memoir that blasts President George Bush, Bush political maven Karl Rove and the White House in general. And we noted that, the if past was any indication, a move would start to discredit him and his book.
It apparently has already begun.
Mark Halperin, noting that the book has dominated the morning news/talk shows, has these tidbits:
NBC quotes a response from a former White House “senior adviser”:
“This book has left many of Scott’s closest friends puzzled and shocked… He never expressed any reservations while serving. To do so in a highly publicized book is what makes people lose faith in those who work in Washington.”
Karl Rove on Fox News:
“That doesn’t sound like the Scott I know, it sounds like a left-wing blogger… If he had these moral qualms, he should have spoken out about them.”
[See the Rove video HERE]
Halperin notes that McClellan will be appearing on the Today Show Thursday — which means you can expect to see a lot more comments aimed at him and his book to take the edge off it and discredit him and his allegations. (He must be acting like a leftist…he must be a disgruntled employee…he must be writing what he’s writing and exaggerating to get money for his book…)
Rove’s comment is particularly telling: he automatically likens McClellan to a “left-wing blogger,” which pushes the political hot button among Fox viewers.
Expect more of the same in the next few days. And you can guess what Rush and Sean will be saying about McClellan on their shows today: they’ll focus on going after McClellan a la Rove and the unnamed quote, but avoid, downplay or dismiss outright the allegations.
NOTE: In our post yesterday (be sure to go to the link and read it) we noted that McClellan was not considered one of the most beloved or skilled press secretaries. That still does NOT obscure or negate his allegations. But The Weekly Standard’s Michael Goldfarb does make a point here:
Ask fifty Washington reporters for an assessment of Scott McClellan and forty-nine of them will give you some version of this: He’s a nice guy who was in way over his head. (Most of them will be tougher in their analysis of his intellect.)
Given the imminent release of McClellan’s “surprisingly scathing” book about the Bush administration, in the words of super-reporter Mike Allen, expect him to be praised as insightful and wise beyond his years in the coming weeks.
So, yes, SOME may well try to rewrite history. On the other hand, the degree of his intellect will not take away from his allegations — except among those who have a political interest in trying to discredit them.
Nor will whether he was a terrific press secretary or change his allegations which fit in with other material written about the Bush administration and it increasingly documented credibility issues. McClellan’s book will be one more confirmation of what historians will write about as a Bush administration characteristic. Many historians are now calling Bush the worst President in American history.
McClellan sweating on camera or whether he was a great press secretary or not won’t take away from his book’s critical content. Except among we-always-play-defense talk show hosts and those who have a political interest in defending the administration.
UPDATE:
–More news stories that offer more allegations that we originally listed here and here.
11 Responses to “Move To Discredit McClellan For Anti-Bush Memoir Has Begun (UPDATED)”
I'd be sweating too if I was telling a pack of lies.
So it's all a pack of lies, even though it fits in with some other published accounts of the Bush administration. Let me guess what talk shows you listen to…
Joe, it's obvious whom you're in the tank for. McClellan obviously fell off a turnip truck long ago & was given a thankless job of facing BDS moonbats like yourself every day. Now, Lil Scott is going to take the money and run!
Most of the leftie gibberish you swallow whole are at the very least tendentious exaggerations. And often outright lies. Like the entire concoction of the Wilson/Plame farce that even the Dems in the Senate couldn't stomach after hearing Wilson's testimony. Joe's rep in the Foreign Service was as a BS artist, but the Senate saw through his silly sellout.
I've got some well-watered land down here near Boca I'd like to sell you.
If his book contains a pack of lies, let the 'truthtellers” in the Bush administration sue McClellan in court for libel. Somehow, I doubt they'll choose to do that. Personal and professional attacks and attempts to discredit the “disgruntled ex-employee” fit their longtime pattern, even if it is cowardly and backhanded.
Joe -
How exactly do the quotes from 'a former SR WH advisor' and Rove you provided rise to the level of 'start(ing) to discredit him and his book'? The only really negative quote about him is from the press itself.
Now, given politics in general, and this WH in particular, it is certainly fair to expect them to go on the offensive, but maybe we should wait until that actually happens to start throwing accusations and labels around.
I think AR is mostly right. At this point all we have are subtle jabs at McClellan from the Bush circle. Although I wouldn't be surprised to see the roundhouse kicks soon.
[...] Gandelman notes that the effort to discredit Scott McClellan has already begun: Mark Halperin, noting that the book has dominated the morning news/talk shows, has these tidbits: [...]
What talk shows do I listen to?
“McClellan will be appearing on the Today Show Thursday “
Holding a copy of the book up to the camera, which of course will zoom closely on it so everyone knows what words are on it and what what the cover looks like, of course.
That'll add to the excitement we're already seeing on the Left among those with little self-control.
Visiting the far-lefty sites that are happy to report the poll (hardly the quality of a Pew poll, to say the least) of the historians (where are the welfare activists, the labor union officials and union organizers, the environmental activists, and other logical as well as political affiliiates of those who were chosen for this?), we get quotes that satisfies so many of the lefties and far lefties on this (ha) “moderate” site, and could easily have come from many on this site if the language were to be sanitized:
“No individual president can compare to the second Bush[.] Glib, contemptuous, ignorant, incurious, a dupe of anyone who humors his deluded belief in his heroic self, he has bankrupted the country with his disastrous war and his tax breaks for the rich, trampled on the Bill of Rights, appointed foxes in every henhouse, compounded the terrorist threat, turned a blind eye to torture and corruption and a looming ecological disaster, and squandered the rest of the world’s goodwill. In short, no other president’s faults have had so deleterious an effect on not only the country but the world at large.”
“With his unprovoked and disastrous war of aggression in Iraq and his monstrous deficits, Bush has set this country on a course that will take decades to correct[.] When future historians look back to identify the moment at which the United States began to lose its position of world leadership, they will point—rightly—to the Bush presidency. Thanks to his policies, it is now easy to see America losing out to its competitors in any number of area: China is rapidly becoming the manufacturing powerhouse of the next century, India the high tech and services leader, and Europe the region with the best quality of life.”
“Bush does only two things well,” said one of the most distinguished historians. “He knows how to make the very rich very much richer, and he has an amazing talent for f**king up everything else he even approaches. His administration has been the most reckless, dangerous, irresponsible, mendacious, arrogant, self-righteous, incompetent, and deeply corrupt one in all of American history.”
http://hnn.us/articles/48916.html“
Whether or not it satisfies the lefties, it is, unfortunately, an apt description of the Bush presidency. He has the added distinction of taking his party with him off the proverbial cliff.
I admit to being a moderate lefty, but can find some positive things to say about past Republican presidents. Even Reagan at least managed to deal adroitly with Gorbachev and inspired many to new levels of pride in being American. Bush Sr was out of touch with the economy, but was an adept diplomat internationally. So was Nixon, who, incidentally founded the EPA. Ford was unassuming and very likeable, engendering trust at a touchy time. There is nothing positive to say about W—except for his increase in global Aids funding. He's not even any good at being a conservative as our deficits prove.