Quote of the Day 5/ 30

"Scott McClellan says the president lied to get us into Iraq. That took balls, Scott... 5 years ago."

- Stephen Colbert

Scotty Shines a Light

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has been roundly criticized recently by the Bush administration for his new book (Karl Rove even likened him to "a liberal blogger").

You remember McClellen, he was the pudgy, beta- male that briefed the press early in the Iraq war and who (unwittingly, it would seem) lied about Karl Rove and Scooter Libby's involvement in the Valerie Plame debacle. He was pretty much a source of White House disinformation for a couple of years.

A Bush guy from Texas, McClellan came to DC under-prepared and ill-equipped to deal with the tremendous pressure of entrenched Washington neo-cons with their own agenda-- not unlike the president himself.

In his memoir, What Happened, McClellan puts a startlingly fine point on what most of us already know: The administration manipulated the facts surrounding Iraq, terrorism and WMD to get Americans to back a war under false pretenses.

McClellan was such an ardent "Bushie" that his words are even more striking than former administration and military officials that have also spoken out.

Watch McClellan's amazing interview with Today's Meredith Viera, where he details the personal side and professional roles of the president, Vice President Cheney, Secretaries Condi Rice and Don Rumsfeld--

Bush responds to McClellan

Not sure if you heard, but former White House press secretary Scott McClellan has a new book coming out in which he says he was given false information, which he unwittingly passed on. McClellan blames 5 top White House officials, including the president and vice president, for allowing him to brief the press using lies.

During the CIA leak investigation, McClellan said that White House officials, including Karl Rove, were not involved in the outing of covert agent Valerie Plame. They were.

The woman now in McClellan's old job, Dana Perino, said President Bush "has not and would not knowingly pass false information."