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You are here: Home / Politics / Scott McClellan – The New John Dean

Scott McClellan – The New John Dean

by Michael D.|  November 21, 20077:50 am| 35 Comments

This post is in: Politics, Outrage, Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.

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Former White House Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, is about to throw more fuel on the fire in his new book:

Scott McClellan’s admission that he unintentionally made false statements denying the involvement of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby in the Bush-Cheney administration’s plot to discredit former Ambassador Joe Wilson, along with his revelation that Vice President Cheney and President Bush were among those who provided him with the misinformation, sets the former White House press secretary as John Dean to George Bush’s Richard Nixon. […]

What McClellan has revealed, in a section from an upcoming book on his tenure in the Bush-Cheney White House, is a stunning indictment of the president and the vice president. 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 Central Intelligence Agency analyst — but that the president and vice president actively engaged in efforts to prevent the truth from coming out.

It’ll be a ton of fun watching the Democrats in Congress do nothing about the now obvious felonies commited by both the President of the United States and his Vice President. The article goes on to note:

If the president and vice president knowingly participated in a scheme to attack a critic of their administration — Wilson had revealed that the White House had been informed that arguments Bush and Cheney used for attacking Iraq were ungrounded — they have committed a distinct sort of offense that the House Judiciary Committee has already determined to be grounds for impeachment.

So, let’s watch what happens. As of this posting, I see nothing on Malkin, NRO, Instapundit, Hugh Hewitt, and others explaining how McClellan is just a tool of the wacky left. But it’s early yet.

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Reader Interactions

35Comments

  1. 1.

    jake

    November 21, 2007 at 8:21 am

    Gee. Do you think Scotty’s trying to establish his innocence and get some cash for the legal defense fund before Jan. 2009?

    As of this posting, I see nothing on Malkin, NRO, Instapundit, Hugh Hewitt, and others explaining how McClellan is just a tool of the wacky left. But it’s early yet.

    Yep, there’s still time to place bets.

    1. There is of course tool of the left (“He’s Hitlery’s sex slave!”)

    2. The Classic – “He’s just trying to sell his book!1”

    3. “No underlying crime! No underlying crime!” Plame really wasn’t a secret agent because she didn’t drive around in a BMW X8 that shot lasers from the medallion.

    4. Fact Checkin’. They actually read the book (snort) and find some minute flaw or debatable fact (“He said Karl Rove wore a blue tie with red stripes on Nov 5, 2003, when it was a red tie with blue stripes!!”)

    5. The Favorite. Good old baseless innuendo, rumor and bat shit crazy maliciousness. I’m sure Ace Reporter Michelle Malkin is lurking in his bushes even now. (OMG! He’s got red maples in his yard! He’s a communiz!)

    I think they’ll go with No. 3. TIA to anyone who can actually stomach Wingerville long enough to check.

  2. 2.

    cleek

    November 21, 2007 at 8:22 am

    an extra ten years in hell for the first wingnut to use the “No underlying crime” defense

  3. 3.

    Jen

    November 21, 2007 at 8:35 am

    Well, the Democrats won’t do *nothing*. They’ll conduct an investigation, maybe hold a hearing, for which the government will ignore the subpoenas, and then they will bluster about how the witnesses really ought to appear.

  4. 4.

    gypsy howell

    November 21, 2007 at 8:37 am

    Sounds like Scottyboy is just doing what all good former Bush Administration officials do: covering his sorry fat ass about his own guilt in these crimes and coverups, while at the same time raking in the cash from his book sales.

    And, just as predictably, our democratic overlords in Congress will do what they always do when these crimes come to light — nada.

  5. 5.

    gypsy howell

    November 21, 2007 at 8:39 am

    And then, Jen, Leahy will send a *really strongly worded letter* to the White House. Harumph!

  6. 6.

    4tehlulz

    November 21, 2007 at 8:44 am

    Yep, there’s still time to place bets.

    I go with 6. All of the above.

  7. 7.

    4tehlulz

    November 21, 2007 at 8:47 am

    Now that I think about it, there’s also the the Village Idiots option of “this matter has been dealt with already.”

  8. 8.

    Rudi

    November 21, 2007 at 8:51 am

    And then, Jen, Specter Leahy will send a really strongly worded letter to the White House. Harumph!

    Texas has a streak of independent. Scotty’s mom is a registered Independeny. Ron Paul is a Libertarian RINO. Maybe Scotty does have a conscious, or is he just trying to make a buck.

    At least he isn’t a Friedman…
    Could this be his way of telling Cheney, Scooter and et. al. “Suck on this?”

  9. 9.

    Face

    November 21, 2007 at 8:57 am

    ScottyMac tellng mo’ lies? I bet he’s got a book to sell or something….

  10. 10.

    Lupin

    November 21, 2007 at 9:06 am

    Woodward and Bernstein must be rolling in their graves.

    Oh, wait.

  11. 11.

    Cindrella Ferret

    November 21, 2007 at 9:15 am

    As of this posting, I see nothing on Malkin, NRO, Instapundit, Hugh Hewitt, and others explaining how McClellan is just a tool of the wacky left.

    Until someone in the VRWC (Vicious Rat-bastard Wingnut Cacaphony) develops a conservative equivalent to Josh Marshall’s very fine blog Talking Points Memo MM, NRO, et. al., will be the voice of the VRWC. In other words no credible, well reasoned voices reporting for them in the blogosphere. If someone can point me to such a site I won’t read much written from that point of view.

    It’ll be a ton of fun watching the Democrats in Congress do nothing about the now obvious felonies commited by both the President of the United States and his Vice President.

    Almost as much fun as watching the Democrats in Vichy Congress kiss Administration ass on the Military Commissions Act, Warrantless wiretaps, Gitmo, … I think you catch my drift … Whoa! What’s that sound? Is that the 4th Amendment going down the toilet?

  12. 12.

    Wilfred

    November 21, 2007 at 9:20 am

    The old John Dean probably would have spoken up sooner, like maybe during the Libby trial, when people were actually paying attention and his claim might have made a difference and a chiseling President might have been held to account, for once.
    Estimated Life Span of McClellanYellin’ = 3 hours.

  13. 13.

    Incertus (Brian)

    November 21, 2007 at 9:22 am

    I can’t bring myself to get excited about this book–I’m afraid it’ll be another George Tenet moment. And besides, if all this is true, why the hell did McClellan stay once he figured out he’d been used? An honorable person would have quit under those circumstances, and started hammering the administration immediately.

  14. 14.

    Doug H.

    November 21, 2007 at 9:23 am

    It’ll be a ton of fun watching the Democrats in Congress do nothing about the now obvious felonies commited by both the President of the United States and his Vice President.

    Scotty just handed them the smoking gun, fingerprints and all. Waxman’s gotta be looking at it with drool hanging from his lips, possibly Pelosi too. Not to mention the bustle of activity that’s probably going on in Patrick Fitzgerald’s office as well.

    The Senate, on the other hand…

  15. 15.

    Rudi

    November 21, 2007 at 9:30 am

    The somewhat to the Right says it’s already started. They’ve fired up the faggots on Scotty.
    The Van Der Galiën Gazette

    In the Netherlands, both would’ve most likely been forced to step down. The American system of responsibility is somewhat different, but I don’t quite see how a Democracy can accept this kind of behavior from its leaders (who are, lest we forget, not ‘leaders’ as much as they are ‘representatives of the people’).

    Hilariously, some on the right turn against McClellan instantly:

    – Right Voices: “Until I found out he wrote a tell-all about the Administration. He wants to sell it doesn’t he? What Republican remembers him, let alone would want to buy a book he wrote? We were spoiled with Ari, bored to tears by Scott, and then watched with pride as Tony gave as well as he got from the Press Corps.”

    – Macsmind: “Yeah, yeah they all knew about Valerie Plame, and made ‘Scottie’ lie. Boy! You would think Fitzgerald would have discovered that after two years and 30 million bucks!”

    – Flopping Aces concludes that McClellan is lying because he defended Bush in the past.

    Utterly amazing.

  16. 16.

    Rudi

    November 21, 2007 at 9:31 am

    The somewhat to the Right MvdG

  17. 17.

    Zifnab

    November 21, 2007 at 9:37 am

    Sorry, guys. They put a moratorium on impeachments for all Presidents not named Clinton in the same SCOTUS case that ruled Bush was the winner of the ’00 election by virtue of his father having selected the swing votes.

  18. 18.

    AkaDad

    November 21, 2007 at 10:21 am

    Why should the Dems do anything? Bush didn’t get a blowjob, he only committed treason.

  19. 19.

    jcricket

    November 21, 2007 at 10:59 am

    And besides, if all this is true, why the hell did McClellan stay once he figured out he’d been used? An honorable person would have quit under those circumstances, and started hammering the administration immediately.

    And there you have your answer.

    Honestly, I think it’s like what people talk about with Steve Jobs – the “reality distortion field”. Hanging out so close to Bush, Cheney and the neo-cons warps your sense of right and wrong. You can see it in previously staunch fourth-amendment libertarian types gleefully supporting warrantless wiretapping and indefinite detention. You can see it in the glee with which the “America protected their POWs in WWII” crowd gets behind the idea of torture. And so on.

    But get enough distance from these people and you realize you’ve been used in one of the greatest cons every pulled on the American people. Look at David Brock for a perfect example.

  20. 20.

    JGabriel

    November 21, 2007 at 11:05 am

    Rdy, at 9:30 am, reports:

    Macsmind: “Yeah, yeah they all knew about Valerie Plame, and made ‘Scottie’ lie. Boy! You would think Fitzgerald would have discovered that after two years and 30 million bucks!”

    Funny how that 3 million has morphed into 30 million.

    .

  21. 21.

    Libby Spencer

    November 21, 2007 at 11:09 am

    Well, Dodd has come out and asked for the investigation.

    “Today’s revelations by Mr. McClellan are very disturbing and raise several important questions that need to be answered. If in fact the President of the United of States knowingly instructed his chief spokesman to mislead the American people, there can be no more fundamental betrayal of the public trust.

    “During his confirmation process, Attorney General Mukasey said he would act independently. Accordingly, today, I call on the Attorney General to live up to his word and launch an immediate investigation to determine the facts of this case, the extent of any cover up and determine what the President knew and when he knew it.”

    Granted, it’s unlikely to go anywhere but at least he’s trying.

  22. 22.

    jcricket

    November 21, 2007 at 11:43 am

    Funny how that 3 million has morphed into 30 million.

    Right, $3 million to actually secure a conviction. A conviction that indicated some of the reason there weren’t more indictments was because the person convicted was deliberately obstructing justice by lying to Federal investigators.

    vs $75 million for? ? ? waiting…

    It’s one thing for the wingers to claim “there was no crime” or “it was no big deal” (or whatever)… but their insistence on making Plame and Joe Wilson into these big “liars” that will get charged with crimes simply boggles the imagination.

  23. 23.

    Michael van der Galiën

    November 21, 2007 at 12:19 pm

    Rudi: amazing huh?

    The far left and right are actually the same people.

  24. 24.

    Chad N. Freude

    November 21, 2007 at 12:49 pm

    They put a moratorium on impeachments deleted Article II Section 4 for all Presidents not named Clinton

    just as they deleted all other provisions of the Constitution.

  25. 25.

    AnonE.Mouse

    November 21, 2007 at 1:56 pm

    I’m liking Dodd more and more.Between this and his position on telecommunication amnesty,he seems to be the only candidate with a chance in hell of winning who doesn’t have his head up the administration’s ass.It will be interesting to see how he shows on the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act when it reaches the Senate(Kucinich was one of only six who voted against it in the House).Mister Bill’O’Rights himself,Saint(Ron)Paul,didn’t vote.

  26. 26.

    Punchy

    November 21, 2007 at 2:20 pm

    Uh…Mike? You’d better make this into an update.

    Wow, that lasted all of one day. I knew something seemed fishy….

  27. 27.

    D-Chance.

    November 21, 2007 at 3:20 pm

    It’s very hard not to conclude that McClellan and his publisher deliberately played the media for chumps with the too-cute-by-half excerpt they posted yesterday. And it worked.

    Let me fix that TPM quote: “It’s very hard not to conclude that McClellan and his publisher deliberately played the media moonbat wing of Bloghistan for chumps with the too-cute-by-half excerpt they posted yesterday. And it worked.”

    Indeed. Heh.

  28. 28.

    Michael Lewyn

    November 21, 2007 at 6:29 pm

    Where’s the felony here? How does “participat[ing] in a scheme to attack a critic of their administration” constitute obstruction of justice?

  29. 29.

    Psycheout

    November 21, 2007 at 7:58 pm

    Scott McClellan is disloyal scum. A turncoat. A traitor. He’ll be writing unhinged rants on Daily Kos next. Just you watch.

    Or maybe, just maybe, he’s a fraud and a liar. He’s lied before hasn’t he? He’ll be laughing all the way to the bank with piles of cash from you BDS sufferers. Works every time. Suckers.

  30. 30.

    Psycheout

    November 21, 2007 at 8:04 pm

    And the idiocy of the title of this post knows no bounds. John Dean, although traitorous scum like Simple Scotty, was White House Counsel. Scotty was a lowly messenger, a court jester, if you will.

    What you and Snotty are selling, I ain’t buying. Peddle your buffalo chips elsewhere.

  31. 31.

    joe

    November 21, 2007 at 11:33 pm

    The leftist obsession with this non-story is beginning to approach Clinton Chronicles type hysteria. Soon, we’ll start hearing of dead bodies.

    Scottys clever langauge implying something nefarious, while actually saying nothing material is brilliant marketing, I must say. The bait has been taken…and swallowed.

  32. 32.

    Aaron

    November 21, 2007 at 11:57 pm

    Where’s the felony here?
    How does ‘the war crime of starting an illegal war of agression resulting in the deaths of 1 million Iraqis(more or less)’
    Or felony murder, special circumstances-mass murder, as a capital crime?

  33. 33.

    Marc V

    November 22, 2007 at 9:43 am

    You really are a bunch of mental cases here. For the 15 billionth time:

    (1) Many non-U.S intelligence agencies, the UN, and independent analysts thought Iraq had WMD;
    (2) the Iraq War was authorized by Congress;
    (3) Plame was not covered by the Intelligence Identities Protection Act–the sole purpose of Fitzgerald’s investigation;
    (4) Armitage—not Rove or Libby was the source of Novak’s column “outing” Plame;
    (5) Wilson and Plame’s story has been thoroughly debunked by a bi-partisan Senate committee;
    (6) What is so unusual of answering the question ‘why did the CIA send Wilson’?—how else can you answer that question without mentioning the TRUTH–his wife works at the agency??
    (7) I was not aware that revealing or leaking true information about your opponents is against the law. The Clintons did it for 8 years although in most cases they leaked untrue information yet we were all supposed to just “move on”….

  34. 34.

    lee

    November 23, 2007 at 12:07 am

    Why did all the wingnuts show up all of a sudden?

    Did someone link to this post from the gay pages on Conservapedia?

  35. 35.

    joe

    November 27, 2007 at 11:37 am

    Lee,

    Are you another liberal who claims the virtues of tolerance and compassion, and as a result, thinks he’s justified in publically bashing gays…or just a bigot?

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