Mistakes Were Made - The Scott McClellan Story

It's going to be interesting to watch the dominoes fall as Bush staffer after staffer flees the White House and writes his or her book. Former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan steps up this week with his book's revelation that the lies he told while working for Bush were unintentional - having been fed information by Bush, Cheney & all, he was merely a front man for their misdeeds.

The Nation looks at the Valarie Plame affair from McClellan's book:

The former press secretary is confirming that Bush and Cheney not only knew that Rove, the administration's political czar, and Libby, who served as Cheney's top aide, were involved in the scheme to attack Wilson's credibility -- by outing the former ambassador's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA analyst -- but that the president and vice president actively engaged in efforts to prevent the truth from coming out.

"The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby," writes McClellan in an excerpt from his book, What Happened, which is to be published next April by Public Affairs.

"There was one problem," the long-time Bush aide continues. "It was not true. I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration "were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself."

Bush & Cheney lied to the American public? Gee, rush that one out to the news wire. That's a news flash to end news flashes. Oh, wait, you're right, there are still 20-some% of the American public clinging to their view that Bush is worth their time.

For the rest of us, news like this makes me ask - so what. Bush & Cheney lied about this. We know that. We know that they've lied about a hell of a lot more. So one of their cronies has found the stones to admit it publically after fleeing? It's just such a tired old pattern. And with this administration, just the tip of the iceberg. McClellan and the crew that will follow him down this road sold their souls to the devil when they went to work in that White House. And now they're out their first move is to cover their butts.

Newsflash to Scott - We know Bush/Cheney lied. What would be nice to see from one of their enablers instead of a self-serving memoir after the fact is an admission that you were part of the circus. What would have been even nicer would be to have seen you stand up and say so while still in the circus. It's a day late and a dollar short now - so take your book and cling to it, hoping that while the media jumps up & down in excitement nobody takes the time to ask you the hard questions of your complicity in this administration's criminal, immoral and unethical actions.