Scott McClellan's New Book Shocks White House

Posted on May 28, 2008

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan blasts President Bush and most of the West Wing crew in his shocking new memoir, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception. In the book, McClellan attacks the mainstream press for not asking enough questions in the lead up to the Iraq War, says the White House "sold" the war just like a political campaign and generally alleges lying and incompetence in the Bush White House.

Scott McClellan, one of the Texans who came to Washington with President George W. Bush, spent a long time defending the administration but now has concluded this his longtime employer misled the nation into an unneeded war in Iraq. "History appears poised to confirm what most Americans today have decided -- that the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder," Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary, writes in his book, What Happened, which will be released on Monday. Subtitle: Washington's Culture of Deception. "No one, including me, can know with absolute certainty how the war will be viewed decades from now when we can more fully understand its impact," he writes in the preface of the book. "What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary."
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For all the White House protests of critics who complain that Bush does not seek widespread counsel and critique in his decision-making, this former White House hand says that's precisely the problem.
"President Bush has always been an instinctive leader more than an intellectual leader," McClellan writes. "He is not one to delve into all the possible policy options -- including sitting around engaging in extended debate about them -- before making a choice. Rather, he chooses based on his gut and his most deeply held convictions. Such was the case with Iraq." "Bush is plenty smart enough to be president," he concludes. "But as I've noted his leadership style is based more on instinct than deep intellectual debate."

But that's just the beginning. McClellan says Bush actually can't remember whether he did cocaine or not, the Condoleeza Rice is great at turning blame for her mistakes onto other people and that Dick Cheney lied about Plamegate. Not surprisingly, the book is hitting all the bestseller lists: it is currently #1 on Amazon.com.