Sunday, June 08, 2008
Opinion
Scotty come lately
Seven takes on Scott McClellan’s new book
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan discusses his new book on “Meet the Press” on June 1.By Arriana Huffington
Take One: What Took You So Long?
In “What Happened,” Scott McClellan offers withering portraits of George Bush, Karl Rove, Condi Rice and Scooter Libby, confirms that we went to war in Iraq under false pretenses, and reveals that we were serially lied to about the outing of Valerie Plame.
Interesting stuff, Scott. But about five years too late. It’s George Tenet déjà vu all over again. How many times are we going to have a key Bush administration official try to wash the blood off his hands—and add a chunk of change to his bank account—by writing a come-clean book years after the fact, pointing the finger at everyone else while painting himself as an innocent bystander who saw all the horrible things that were happening but somehow had no choice but to go along?
McClellan told Cox News Service that “My job was to advocate and defend [Bush’s] policies and speak on his behalf. This is an opportunity for me now to share my own views and perspective on things.”
It would have been a lot more helpful if he had taken the “opportunity” when it really mattered—say, before the 2004 election, when it could have potentially saved thousands of lives.
Take Two: The Rationale for Iraq is Even Worse Than We Thought
Perhaps the most damning revelation regarding Iraq is McClellan’s assertion that the real reason Bush wanted to invade Iraq was the “opportunity to create a legacy of greatness” by transforming the Middle East into a land of peace and brotherhood. More than 4,000 dead U.S. soldiers sacrificed for a neocon wet dream of democratic dominoes across the region. How chilling is that?
McClellan also tosses in a pinch of Oedipal subtext: “The president had promised himself that he would accomplish what his father had failed to do by winning a second term in office. And that meant operating continually in campaign mode: never explaining, never apologizing, never retreating.”
Such is the stuff foreign policy nightmares are made of.
Take Three: The Press Secretary Presses the Press
McClellan points an accusatory finger at the mainstream media—he calls them “enablers” and says they were too easy on the administration during the selling of the war: “The ‘liberal media’ didn’t live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.”
Great point, Scotty. I and many others made it back in 2003.
Take Four: Rove More Turd Blossom Than Boy Genius
Speaking of Rove, McClellan’s tome continues the obliteration of the Rove mystique, reminding us what an out-and-out liar Rove was and is—more than willing to assure McClellan that he wasn’t involved in the leaking of Valerie Plame’s identity when, in fact, he was up to his ears in the sordid affair, having discussed Plame with Matt Cooper and Bob Novak in an effort to discredit Joe Wilson.
Take Five: Truthiness in Government
Stephen Colbert satirized the Bush approach when he coined the concept of “truthiness”: the truth we want, in our gut, to exist, without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination or facts.
McClellan reveals how much the joke matched the reality. Citing Bush’s assertion that he honestly couldn’t remember if he’d ever done cocaine, McClellan says he felt he “was witnessing Bush convincing himself to believe something that probably was not true, and that, deep down, he knew was not true.”
But who needs reality when you have faith? Who needs truth when you have truthiness? As George Costanza put it on “Seinfeld”: “Jerry, just remember, it’s not a lie if you believe it.”
Take Six: Truth in Government
According to McClellan, the Secret Service code name for the White House press secretary was “Matrix.”
As any Keanu Reaves fan will tell you, the Matrix is a simulated reality used to pacify and subdue the human population in a dystopian future.
Who knew Secret Service agents have such an arch sense of humor?
Take Seven: Heckuva Job, Scotty!
On the day McClellan resigned as press secretary, Bush pictured a time down the road when he and his former aide would “be rocking on chairs in Texas, talking about the good old days and his time as the press secretary. And I can assure you, I will feel the same way then that I feel now, that I can say to Scott, ‘Job well done.’”
I can already see the blurb on the back of the paperback edition of “What Happened”: “Heckuva job, Scotty!”—George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States. SP