|
(Originally posted November 2007) Former White House Press Corps punching bag Scott McClellan cried victim yesterday, leaking excerpts from a new book confessing what most pundits and news junkies believed already: that as press secretary for President Bush, he lied to the media regarding the Valarie Plame leak investigation.
Scott claims he was an ignorant pawn of Bush, Cheney and Rove, but I have no sympathy. His antics, and those of past press secretaries and politicians alike, are the reason the only media still capable of exposing the truth are publishers who fork over seven figures for juicy tell-alls. Apparently Scott is only interested in being forthright with the American people when it earns a bigger paycheck.
Scott’s greatest hits are infuriating. If you want to see a government no longer accountable to its electorate, watch the video of this press briefing over the leak investigation. The corps ask the tough questions. Scott stonewalls. David Gregory nearly drops an F-bomb.
Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels wrote “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.” Think Scott read Goebbels’ diary? When did our government decide "we aren't ready to talk about that" was a valid response to questions of impropriety, and when did we cede our republic to an unaccountable tyranny? Scott repeats the worrisome pattern of Powell, rumored to be writing his own memoir, and other notable Bush administration cast-offs who worked silently until dismissed, then decided to voice their outrage at $50,000 speaking engagements.
Serving "at the pleasure of the President" also must mean working in the interest of the American people. Let's stop paying these rejects big bucks for the dirt they refused to disclose when it could still make a difference.
**to read more articles by this author, click on the name under the headline**
 |
And before the Dems get all high and mighty, they ought to review the tape of Bill Clinton debating the definition of “is.?
The saddest thing about McClellan•s disclosure isn’t that all the president’s men deceived the American people, but that no one is shocked or outraged. We all just assume the spokesperson for the president is full of shit. Does that seem wrong to anyone else? And the reform candidates are so worried about risking what they see as an inevitable political victory, they won’t hold the president to account, fearing it will look like “partisan politics.? You bet your ass it•s partisan. That’s what you f*ers are there for. Not to tow the car away when the tires fall off, but to sit in the passenger seat and grab the wheel when the power-drunk driver veers us into oncoming traffic. If you hadn’t started your campaigning a year early, maybe you’d realize you still have an important job to do. Go do it or you’re not getting my vote next year.
Where are the third party candidates? This two-party thing ain’t working.