McClellan is so not Gellin

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McClellan is so not Gellin

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Some things happen too quickly for the truth to come out. For example, when Alan Greenspan’s
book came out the news was led with stories about how he had “said” in
his book that Iraq was all about the oil. After the story had petered
out we discovered that what he really meant was that if not for oil no
one would give Iraq a second thought. But stuff get distorted; that’s
just how things are.

Another distortion in the making, possibly, is about former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.
The story, so far, has it that Mr McClellan is claiming that he was
coerced into lying about Plamegate by high ranking White House
officials. Here’s the story:

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Former White House Press
Secretary Scott McClellan says in an upcoming book that he was misled
by President George W. Bush and other high officials into misinforming
the press about a CIA leak case that fueled debate about the Iraq war.

McClellan says he publicly exonerated former top White House aides
Karl Rove and Lewis “Scooter” Libby because Bush had called on him to
help restore his credibility after the failure to find weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq.

“There was one problem. It was not true. I had unknowingly passed
along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in
the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice
president, the president’s chief of staff, and the president himself,”
McClellan said in an excerpt released on Tuesday.

McClellan, a long-time Bush aide, whose job as White House press
secretary from 2003 to 2006 was to field questions from the press, was
not available for comment.

His book “Inside the Bush White House and What’s Wrong with
Washington” is due out only in April, but the publisher, Public
Affairs, posted the excerpt on its Web site as a teaser.

Asked about the excerpt, White House press secretary Dana Perino
said: “The president has not and would not ask anyone to pass on false
information.”

A criminal investigation into who leaked the identity of former CIA
analyst Valerie Plame reached into the ranks of top White House aides
and resulted in the conviction of Libby on perjury and obstruction of
justice charges in March.

Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, was
sentenced to 2 1/2 year in prison. Bush commuted the sentence in July.

Plame’s cover was blown after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph
Wilson, accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence on
Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to build its case for war.

No one was charge with criminally disclosing Plame’s identity.

Rove, Bush’s former White House political adviser, was investigated but not charged, in the CIA leak probe.

On the day when Libby’s verdict was announced, McCllelan was asked
in an interview on CNN’s “Larry King Live” whether he had been lied to
by those involved.

He responded: I did speak directly with them and I was careful about
the way I phrased it at the time, even though I believed what they had
told me to be the truth.”

It’s absolutely possible that McClellan turncoated, and it’s also
possible that his publisher is trying to gin up as much buzz around his
upcoming book as possible. Unfortunately for McClellan was that he was
sandwiched between two great press secretaries, Fleischer and Snow, and
McClellan was on board for some of the lower moments for the Bush
regime. This type of anti-Bush publicity might be what he needs to
goose his book sales. Follow the money. BigT