Here I go again, introducing politics once more into our fairly non-political blog, but I had to get your reactions on this one. Bush’s former press secretary, Scot McCLellan, has written a book that will hit shelves Monday in which he absolutely obliterates dubya. He talks about the unparalleled lying, the “culture of deception” and Bush’s “decision to turn away from candor and honesty when those qualities were most needed” in our nation as it was on the brink of war. It’s all stuff that we’ve known, but it is decidedly poignant when coming from another former insider in the Bush White House. Of course, the White House’s official response via the current press secretary, Dana Perino, is that they all knew Scott was “disgruntled about his experience at the White House.” Uh, yeah, wouldn’t -or I guess- shouldn’t you be??? A bit hard to get past being used as a pawn for the lies of others. Although, perhaps their real argument is that he knew what he was doing, so he should’ve said something then or not accepted the post out of principle. No matter which way you cut it, it’s cynical to say the least, to try and portray yet one more former White House staffer with some insight as “disgruntled” and not worthy of paying attention to.
So here’s my question: How high would you have to go in the chain of employees in this administration who have written or will write books, for the White House’s official response to NOT paint that person out to be disgruntled and a liar? Will it take Dick Cheney writing a tell all on himself to finally get Bush’s press secretary to step up to the podium and say, “Well, Dick knows a lot about… Dick, so this book does have some truth to it. He was -as he admits in the book- ‘hell bent’ on going to war in Iraq. And he did indeed ‘sell that commie bitch, Valerie Plame, down the river’ by outing her as a CIA operative. Also, he was in fact the ‘de facto head baldy in charge’ as it were, so much of the blame can be placed on his hunched shoulders. However, let it be said that President Bush and the rest of us are taken aback by the accusation that the president agreed on all fronts with Mr. Cheney. He certainly did not. It was Mr. Cheney’s feeling, for example, that the president should actually keep playing golf throughout the Iraq War as a show of solidarity with the soldiers actually in the Gulf. This ‘Golf for the Guys in the Gulf’ campaign was too punny in the president’s opinion. He much preferred ‘Bagging Baghdad For My Dad’ as a slogan. So with that in mind, you can see that this book is really just the disgruntled rantings of a former Vice President who really wanted to be president… even though, he actually kind of was president, but not really, at least in an official kind of way, okay?”
I guess that wasn’t a question, more of a rant. I’m disgruntled though, so you have to forgive me.
Jack Silbert, curator