When Scott McClellan was named George Bush’s White House press secretary in 2003, The New York Times referred to his “tell-all-dad,” Barr McClellan.
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An attorney, Barr McClellan had used information about his former partners at a Texas law firm as the basis of a book asserting Lyndon Baines Johnson had directed the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Scott McClellan has now written his own “tell-all” book, a chronicle of his time in the George W. Bush White House.
Entitled What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception, the volume is no valentine to a former boss.
McClellan writes that Bush was not “open and forthright” going into the Iraq War.
He also writes that he was misled by Bush aides, Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby, in connection with the leaking of information about Valerie Plame, a CIA operative.
And McClellan pictures the White House as in a “state of denial” during the first week after the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Dana Perino, the current White House press secretary, was reported in the Times online edition today as characterizing McClellan’s book as the work of a “disgruntled” ex-employee.
“For those of us who fully supported him before, during and after he was press secretary, we are puzzled. It is said,” she said. “This is not the Scott we knew.”
McClellan’s book is officially published next week. Copies had been sent to some reporters with the understanding that their stories not come out before Sunday.
Politico’s Mike Allen, who did not agree to the embargo, purchased a copy in a Washington book store and wrote about it Tuesday. Since then, reports have flooded out.
A native of Austin, Texas, McClellan, 40. was part of Bush’s gubernatorial administration in Texas, serving as Bush’s deputy communications director and spokesman.
He was also the traveling press secretary for Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign. He was appointed White House press secretary in July 2003, and served in that capacity until he resigned in April 2006.
As press secretary, McClellan was seen as mild-mannered, even shy, not as eager to be front and center as his predecessor, Ari Fleischer, or as his successor, Tony Snow.
McClellan comes from a well-known Texas family. His grandfather, W. Page Keeton, was the long-time dean of the University of Texas Law School.
His mother, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, is the former three-term mayor of Austin and the former Texas comptroller.
In 2006, Strayhorn was an unsuccessful independent candidate for governor in Texas.
Strayhorn and Barr McClellan, her first husband, had three other sons.
Mark McClellan, a physician and economist, was the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration during Bush’s first term.
In March 2004, he became the administrator for the government’s Medicare and Medicaid services. He is now a fellow at the Brookings Institution.
The two other McClellan brothers, twins Brad and Dudley, are lawyers in Texas.
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8 Comments
#1. KYJurisDoctor 05.28.2008
I CANNOT wait to read Scott’s book so I can find out what other CONFIRMED lies the Bush administration has told to the American people!
#2. Mike 05.29.2008
this guy is a nobody…exactly what is his background regarding policy making, war planning and all the other areas he is apparently an expert in. If Bush had realized how the all encompassing expert in all areas pertaining to the most difficult issues of the day was so unhappy he surely would have given him more belly rubs
#3. Pete 05.29.2008
Glenn,
You said on your program that people should stand up and speak out because it is the right thing to do, not for the money. I’m sure CNN will be happy that you have volunteered to work for free now. And your publications were all done for free, right? And your radio show? Yeah! Right! And you call others hypocrites?
#4. jjv 05.29.2008
Nothing in this book is new, nothing in this book addresses a single issue that has not been gnawed on and twisted by the media since 2001. This man is a classic case of a disgruntles employee who is looking to cash in.
Throughout his entire term as Press Secretary he never once had anything to say to anyone about what he claims now to have had serious reservations about from a moral point of view. If true that he had strong objections to what he was asked to do, why did he remain silent, and why did he not leave his position in protest as many people of real character have done before him, when their duties conflicted with their closely held beliefs?
In the end McClellan went after the buck. He has not had a job since he left the WH, extraordinary in and of itself given his position as PS. No matter the big splash he is trying to make, along with the help of the Bush hating networks and liberal print media, McClellan has revealed not a single bit of information not known by everyone and anyone who follows politics and watches the news.
When the reality becomes apparent that this is nothing more then another lame attempt to grab a buck by taking information widely disseminated before and wrapping it in a new cover, it will go the way of all the other kiss and tell books, into the bargain bin and your local Barnes and Noble.
#5. TPSanders 05.29.2008
Actually his mom’s full name is Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn, so it’s no wonder the boy is confused about a lot of things! Every time he saw his mom talking to another man, like he claims he “saw but did not hear” Rove and Libby, he got another daddy! His mom has no integrity and niether does he!
#6. Alejandro 05.29.2008
Some people is asking if McClellan betrayed Pres. Bush confidence. As far as I know, he made an oath to U.S. Constitution and the people, so he betraid them that oath when he decided to support Bush despite his own doubts and actual knowledge (according to his version of the story) instead of quitting and say what he supposedly knew.
Now he comes and washes his hands like Pontius Pilate. I’m sorry for the guy, but now it’s too late. More than 4,000 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died for no reason, U.S. image around the world is torn, its power has weakened, the war is being lost and Iraq is at risk to become a new refuge for Islamic terrorism, like Afghanistan seven years ago. Bin-Laden and al-Qaeda are still mocking the West and the Bush Administration.
This McClellan affair just confirms me that the current U.S.Administration is no more than a bunch of irresponsibles, and that its foreign policy is leading the country to disaster, but the plans of the politicians who wants a retreat in 2009 could cause more damage in the war against terror.
Also, this story reminds me what Pres. Kennedy said after Bay of Pigs fiasco: “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan”. In that case, Kennedy accepted his own responsibility, but I don’t have any hope that some day Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice or McClellan himself state to the press: “It’s our fault, I’m going to confess and turn in to the authorities. I expect my co-workers are going to do as well”.
By the way, I’m not from the U.S., but I think that U.S. problems concern us all.
(Please, if you are going to mention my comment, although I doubt it, do not mention my e-mail, a lot of people know it. Thanks.)
#7. Clayton L. Hallmark 05.29.2008
Like everyone who has worked for George W. Bush, Scott McClellan is not to be trusted.
The Bush lies that he has described have all been exposed long ago, for any open-minded personat least.
No, thank you, Scott. I wouldn’t give a dime for either your book or your former boss. It’s too little way too late (where is your proof?). Bush is just a front-man, like Cheney (who possibly is the real No. 1 in the WH) for the rich American elite, who are using the US military to plunder for their own personal capital gains. It is impossible to wish any of these people well.
#8. Lorraine Cooke 06.01.2008
After reading a bio on Grandma, his mommy, he may be suffering from remorse over the fact that Grandma lost her election bid for the Governor of Texas , maybe a little bitter. He needs our prayers.
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