Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Burn that Bridge, Scotty, Burn it!
















Seriously, Scott, the NY Times' excerpts probably don't do full justice to your sentiment. Tell us how you really feel.

Choice quotes coming from the Times coverage of former Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan's new memoir, inner quotes McClellan's own words:

"President Bush 'convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment,' and has engaged in 'self-deception' to justify his political ends."

"The decision to invade Iraq was a 'serious strategic blunder,' and yet, in his view, it was not the biggest mistake the Bush White House made. That, he says, was 'a decision to turn away from candor and honesty when those qualities were most needed.'"

On the administration's response to Hurricaine Katrina, the Times quotes McClellan as "saying it 'spent most of the first week in a state of denial' and 'allowed our institutional response to go on autopilot.'"

On Condoleeza Rice as both National Security Adviser and Secretary of State, "'No matter what went wrong, she was somehow able to keep her hands clean,' Mr. McClellan writes, adding that 'she knew how to adapt to potential trouble, dismiss brooding problems, and come out looking like a star.'”

But his guns blaze on everybody including himself, "Mr. McClellan does not exempt himself from failings — 'I fell far short of living up to the kind of public servant I wanted to be' — and calls the news media 'complicit enablers' in the White House’s 'carefully orchestrated campaign to shape and manipulate sources of public approval' in the march to the Iraq war in 2002 and 2003."

So, does Scotty get a pat on the back for this tell all two years after the fact, or should he be pitied that it took him two years to stop spinning and get his bearings on the damage that's been done?

2 comments:

Cod Peace said...

So, does Scotty get a pat on the back for this tell all two years after the fact, or should he be pitied that it took him two years to stop spinning and get his bearings on the damage that's been done?

Well, imagine being Scott - you're in the Oval Office, meeting with the President and his top advisors, he's at the center of history in the making, and he started out as a true believer. Wouldn't you have some trouble coming to grips with what was going on? I say McClellan earns some props for not exempting himself for the actions taken in those times.

Repack Rider said...

I say Scotty deserves a few years in jail to contemplate his sins, and that he takes the stand under oath and says the same stuff.