That was what came to mind when I heard about Scott McClellan's new book What Happened.
Free of the prestige and paychecks of his job as chief White House flack, Scott apparently felt he had nothing left to lose in this embarrassing act of self promotion and greed.
For those of you who have slept through the latest Beltway soap opera, the former White House press secretary has written a new memoir about his years in the West Wing. One of the chief claims being that "the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated "political propaganda campaign" led by President Bush and aimed at "manipulating sources of public opinion" and "downplaying the major reason for going to war." (Washington Post, Wednesday)
For the journalists who were forced to sit at Scott's feet, daily begging for news morsels, this book is beyond insulting. It's not that he was all that compelling in his role of White House Press Secretary. He wasn't. It was clear he was simply reading talking points provided to him by someone higher on the adminstration's food chain. It's that he condemned others (Richard Clarke for example) for doing precisely what he is doing today. It's a marvelous example of the absurdity of this city.
Interpreting the new book and psycho-analyzing Scott's state of mind was the single most popular activity in your nation's capital over the weekend. Ultimately, it's a Rorschach test; what you think of Scott's book has a lot more to do with you, than it does with Scott.
Newsweek's Elanor Clift for example found it "refreshing", while Bob Dole, well... let's just say Scott is off the Dole's Christmas Card List.
Everywhere you looked today the former Bush loyalist was on television, flacking his book and explaining his new found insights. He says it wasn't until after he left the White House that he realized he had become a pawn in the war propaganda game. Does anybody out there believe that?
As for the people who covered the White House in those days; the general concensus at the time seemed to be that Scott was in over his head. You didn't have to be in the West Wing every day (I certainly was not) in order to conclude that this guy got the job for some reason other than his smarts.
Of course it's not as if Scott is the first former Bush White House official to commit this kind of political and professional suicide. The list, in fact is growing quite long.
The book is only now shipping to bookstores. I have only read excerpts, and as far as I can tell the Washington Post is one of the few news organizations to get their hands on a copy mid week.
That fact in itself is perfectly illustrative of Washington.
... but just like Scott, not knowing what we're talking about doesn't keep us from talking about it. Welcome to Washington. Now, like Scott, we should all go home.
No comments:
Post a Comment