Expect all sides to redefine McClellan in order to either boost or reduce his credibility. To the Right, McClellan will have been the worst press secretary of modern times, and to the Left a man of extraordinary ability chased out of his job by Bush’s minions. The truth will be somewhere in the middle. When he left office, most people on both sides considered him a mediocrity at best. His status as favored punching bag for the hard Left can best be captured in the Keith Olbermann farewell McClellan received as he exited in April 2006. It will be particularly amusing to watch this fringe try to rehabilitate McClellan now.
Let’s see that rehabilitation of character that Ed seems to think is going to happen. Firedoglake:
For three years, Scott McClellan stood before the White House press corp and humiliated himself, saying things he knew were probably false or misleading, while pretending that by dissembling for his President he was serving his country. In now confessing his sins and spins, he still clings to the hope of redemption by saying, gosh, they meant well, even if they were all lying about everything.
No rehab there. Let’s try Too Sense:
McClellan has every reason to lie or twist events: making himself a sympathetic character helps him sell books and he wants to minimize the role he played in one of the most flagrant violations of the public trust by the office of the President in history.
Nope, none there either. Let’s try Steve Benen:
One can’t help but wonder, of course, if this is McClellan’s way of trying to save his own skin — as the Bush gang is condemned by history, McClellan doesn’t want to be associated with failure.
Of course, if he’d thought to speak up when it mattered, instead of after the fact, McClellan’s ability to make a difference might have had an effect. Now, it’ll sell books, but it’s a little late in the game.
Nope, no rehab there. Maybe the GOS:
Well, that’s one way to put it. Another might be to say that for three years he willingly distorted and lied about Iraq, about domestic spying, about secret prisons, about torture, and of course, about the White House role in the outing of Valerie Plame. Or he didn’t lie and, as the truth was revealed about these many issues, he chose to stay on and defend Iraq and domestic spying and secret prisons and torture and of course, the people who lied to him about their role in the outing of Valerie Plame. Which is it?
No mercy there, either:
What about the the Rude Pundit:
Hopefully, the book will tank, and McClellan will be reduced to blowing Hannity for nickels. Screw this obsequious pig-fucking son of a bitch, this grubby little man-whore, attempting to purge his soul of the taint and stench of death and sorrow while pulling in a buck or two. He’s not honorable enough to have fallen on his sword, rhetorically or literally. And he’s not even loyal enough to have shut the fuck up (at least an admirable quality in the abstract). He deserves a room in Hell lined with televisions playing his sneering statements of complicity on an endless loop while he’s forced to sit on a couch made of the bloated corpses of Katrina victims. Way too little, way, way too late, you miserable bucket of spooge.
That ain’t rehab in my book.
Even the libertarians are jumping on him:
According to press reports, McClellan says that the Bush administration lied to him about everything, all the time. Which sounds about right, though one gets to wondering either just how clever McClellan is or how dumb he is that it took him so long to figure that out.
No, Captain Ed, the fringe isn’t going to try to “rehab” this dick.
What will be funny is watching Bush sycophants attack him because he has dared to speak ill of W. That will be entertaining.
McClellan’s Rehab, Slower Than ExpectedPost + Comments (135)