McClelland is being vilified, for what? For telling the truth. Nobody is saying he is lying. They are calling him names. They are using the old "Soviet" tactic of accusing him of being crazy, the old Fascist tactic of calling him "disgruntled" or attacking him as disloyal. But nobody says he is lying. The Congress is trying to get people to testify. I hope he'll show up.
And I hope Congress (Waxman's committee) has the moxy to arrest administration officials who refuse to testify and compel them to honor their subpoenas and not act with so much contempt of the constitution.
Chris
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080529/pl_politico/10681;_ylt=AjtdHimaoQ615Yv\
DqaEHjSyWwvIE
McClellan: Plame leak case was turning point
Ex-White House spokesman says he had hoped Bush would change D.C.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24861380/
By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 10:44 a.m. ET, Thurs., May. 29, 2008
The former Bush administration pitchman making explosive election-year
charges about how the White House handled the Valerie Plame case and
built the case for invading Iraq said Thursday that he went to
Washington to change it and became “disillusioned” when he realized he
was just a pawn in the never-ending political game.
“The larger message has been sort of lost in the mix. ... The White
House would prefer I not speak out openly and honestly about my
experiences, but I believe there is a larger purpose,” Scott
McClellan, the chief spokesman for the White House from 2003 to 2006,
told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira exclusively during his first
interview since excerpts of his new memoir hit the Internet on Tuesday.
“I had all this great hope that we were going to come to Washington
and change it. ... Then we got to Washington, and I think we got
caught up in playing the Washington game the way it is being played
today,” said McClellan, who made only passing references to Bush himself.
McClellan’s candid comments about how administration officials made
the case to invade Iraq in March 2003 reverberated throughout the
Beltway and immediately became fodder for the two remaining Democratic
presidential hopefuls after excerpts from the book began emerging
online Tuesday night.
However, McClellan said that it wasn't until he realized that he may
have been led to deliver false information to the media about two
senior administration officials’ roles in outing Valerie Plame as a
CIA operative that he knew he would someday have to tell his story.
“My hope is that by writing this book and sharing openly and honestly
what I learned is that in some small way it might help us move beyond
the partisan warfare of the past 15 years. There’s a larger purpose to
this book. It’s about looking at the permanent campaign culture in
Washington, D.C., and how we can move beyond it,” he said.
As Bush's press secretary, McClellan defended the war to the media.
But in his book he accused the White House of shading the truth and
conducting a political propaganda campaign in making the case to go to
war in Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein.
“I gave them the benefit of the doubt just like a lot of Americans,”
McClellan said. “Looking back and reflecting on it now, I don’t think
I should have.”
‘Patently false’
As the book vaulted to No. 1 on Amazon.com’s best-seller list
Wednesday, Republican critics dismissed him as a turncoat, a sellout
and a disgruntled former employee. The White House called the book
puzzling and sad.
White House adviser Dan Bartlett, who appeared after McClellan on
TODAY, said he still considers McClellan a friend but believes his
former colleague resorted to the same rhetoric in the book that
McClellan claims to disdain. He said McClellan makes bold claims about
the administration “shading the truth” and deceiving the public in
Iraq, but provides little evidence.
“Fundamentally, I believe what Scott was saying in his book was wrong.
It’s patently false. I would not participate in a process in which
we’re misleading the American people,” Bartlett said.
“We’re all quite a bit shocked, Matt, to say the least, about some of
these revelations and the feelings he now is sharing with the American
people that he never shared with us personally,” Bartlett said in
describing the reaction of McClellan’s former colleagues.
He also said that when the decisions to invade Iraq were being made,
McClellan was the deputy press secretary for domestic affairs. “He was
not in those meetings,” Bartlett told Lauer. “He did not hear the
deliberations when the president was deciding whether to send troops
into Iraq.”
But in a second interview with Vieira, McClellan said that he was, in
fact, in some of those meetings when he filled in for his boss, Ari
Fleischer, who took 10 days off for his honeymoon. Fleischer was
married in November 2002.
Fallout for McCain?
While the 40-year-old McClellan has many good things to say about Bush
in his book, its title �" “Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s
Culture of Deception” �" foreshadows a central theme that gives a
public-relations black eye to the White House and could cause
collateral damage at the polls to Republican presidential candidate
John McCain.
McClellan writes that the Bush White House decided “to turn away from
candor and honesty when those qualities were most needed” during the
period when sentiment was being marshaled to invade Iraq and depose
Saddam Hussein.
McClellan said that the White House never shifted from campaign mode
to governing mode, an approach that “almost guaranteed that the use of
force would become the only feasible option. … In the permanent
campaign era, it was all about manipulating sources of public opinion
to the president’s advantage.”
The mainstream media also came under fire from McClellan, who charged
that reporters accepted what they were told and didn’t ask the hard
questions that might have exposed the bad intelligence used to justify
the invasion of Iraq.
‘The truth shall set you free’
“What Happened” is scheduled to go on sale Sunday, but Mike Allen of
the political Web site Politico.com bought an early copy in a
Washington bookstore and posted the first review Tuesday night.
Among the interesting chapter titles in the book are: “The Permanent
Campaign,” “Deniability,” “Triumph and Illusion,” “Revelation and
Humiliation” and “Out of Touch.”
McClellan opens the book with a quotation from the Gospel of John
inscribed on the Tower at his alma mater, the University of Texas: “Ye
shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”
He explains that the book is “about the slice of history I witnessed
during my years in the White House and about the well-intentioned but
flawed human beings �" myself included �" who shaped that history. I've
written it not to settle scores or enhance my own role, but simply to
record what I know and what I learned in hopes that my account will
deepen our understanding of contemporary history, particularly the
events that followed the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001.”
McClellan is convinced that the invasion of Iraq was a “serious
strategic blunder.”
Excerpts from the book had been published last year in which he
appeared to implicate the president in the cover-up of the leak that
ended the career of CIA operative Plame. Former Bush aide Scooter
Libby was convicted and then pardoned of lying to investigators, and
McClellan is convinced that Bush’s senior adviser, Karl Rove, was
involved.
Caught by surprise
But the depth of McClellan’s criticisms of Bush and his White House
revealed in the early reviews apparently caught Bush loyalists by
surprise. On Wednesday, the day after the first review was published,
the White House fired back, characterizing McClellan as a
“disgruntled” former employee.
“Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White
House,” press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement. “For those of
us who fully supported him, before, during and after he was press
secretary, we are puzzled. It is sad �" this is not the Scott we knew.”
Perino said the president was informed of some of the content of the
book and would have no comment.
Ari Fleischer, first of Bush’s four press secretaries and McClellan’s
boss from 2001 to 2003, appeared on MSNBC and said, “I’m heartbroken
because I just don’t understand. Not once did Scott tell me about any
misgivings he had.”
Rove also criticized McClellan, saying to Fox News, “If he had these
moral qualms, he should have spoken up about them. And frankly I don’t
remember him speaking up about these things,” Rove said. “I don’t
remember a single word.”
Even some Democratic bureaucrats expressed surprise at McClellan’s
book, saying that it is highly unusual for a former high-ranking
staffer to turn on a president as McClellan has.
Texas roots
McClellan’s grandfather, W. Page Keeton, was dean of the University of
Texas School of Law. His mother, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, was the
first woman elected mayor of Austin and was elected as the Texas
Comptroller in 1998. She ran for governor of Texas in 2006 but
finished third in a five-way race.
McClellan’s father, Barr McClellan, was an attorney for the National
Labor Relations Board and then for the Federal Power Commission under
Democratic President Lyndon Johnson. Barr McClellan also wrote a book
about power and Washington: “Blood, Money & Power: How LBJ Killed
JFK.” Published in 2003, the book claims that Texas attorney �" and
Barr McClellan’s former boss �" Ed Clark masterminded the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy.
Barr McClellan has written a second book, “Made in the USA: Corporate
Greed, Tax Laws, and the Exportation of America’s Future,” scheduled
for release in July.
Scott McClellan’s brother, Mark, 44, was a member of President Bush’s
council of economic advisers and was commissioner of the Food and Drug
Administration.
According to his White House biography, before joining the White House
staff, McClellan was the traveling press secretary for the Bush-Cheney
2000 presidential campaign. He began working as deputy communications
director for then-Gov. Bush in early 1999. Prior to joining the
governor's office, he served as chief of staff to a Texas state
senator, worked on grassroots outreach for lawsuit reform in Texas,
and managed three successful statewide campaigns.
When McClellan left the White House, the president said, “I thought he
handled his assignment with class, integrity. It's going to be hard to
replace Scott, but nevertheless he made the decision and I accepted
it. One of these days, he and I are going to be rocking in chairs in
Texas and talking about the good old days.”
McClellan said he still admires the man, even if it appears less
likely that he'll be invited to the Bush ranch in Crawford any time soon.
“I continue to have great affection for George W. Bush today,”
McClellan said. “He absolutely cares very passionately about what he
talks about, which is the freedom agenda and spreading democracy
throughout the Middle East. It’s a very idealistic and ambitious
vision, and that was really the driving motivation that pushed him
forward in Iraq �" this chance to, in his view, to really transform the
Middle East by making Iraq a linchpin for spreading democracy."
Vieira asked McClellan if he thinks the president will ever talk to
him again.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I certainly don’t expect it any time soon. I
know this is a tough book for many people to accept.”
We shouldn't be surprised at how the powerful retain power no matter what. Forget the descrepencies of 9/11 or the whitewash of an investigation. Forget about how we train and employ terrorists and even when it becomes known nothing changes. The president was assainated almost 45 yeras ago and even the truth of that remains unknown. Lying through your teeth to get a war for profit going is just par for the course. They lied, America yawns in response.
Jenny takes her clothes off in succession,
While her husband rides a bumper in the President's procession.
She's sees him on the screen as she looks up from giving head.
When he's had enough of that her lover throws her on the bed
to teach her she's alive and suddenly he's dead.
Turn up the TV. No one listening will suspect,
even your mother won't detect it,
no your father won't know.
they think that I've got no respect
but everything means less than zero.
Hey, ooh hey, hey, ooh hey.
Calling Mister Oswald, calling anyone at the scene,
If you were taking home movies there's a chance you might have seen him.
They've got a thousand variations, every witness in a file.
Jenny puts on some coffee and she comes back with a smile.
She says, "I hear that South America is coming into style."
chorus
A pistol was still smoking, a man lay on the floor.
Mister Oswald thought he had an understanding with the law.
She's got rubies on her fingers, Jenny turns and looks away.
Her mind upon a basement out of the USA.
She says, "Let's talk about the future
now we've put the past away."
-Elvis Costello's Dallas version of "Less Tan Zero"
"...McClelland is being vilified, for what? For telling the truth..."
And guess what Chris, it happens in Nichiren Buddhism too. The famous quote from Marc Strumpf,"The one person that unites all the Nichiren Groups together is Bruce Maltz, he is one person that we all hate equally". Why, Chris?
Not only do we need a new form of Government, Politics, but a new way to see the teachings to give people back their power. It ain't the SGI, or Ikeda, and it ain't the Kempon or anything that has been tried already. Those were part of the parasitic elements keeping away the merits hidden in each person that were transferred from the Buddha.
Bruce
Posted by: Bruce Maltz at May 31, 2008 03:48 PMI don't hate you. My buddy mark learned his patterns of thinking hanging around the same Trotskyites and ex-Trotskyites who have taught neo-cons to be so plug yuggly.
Though nobody needs to be taught how to be plug yuggly. All they need is some excuse, some permission that says that "all is justified in fighting evil."
Plug yuggly comes naturally. Grace, forbearance, honesty, accuracy, compassion, and wisdom -- those take "cultivation." I have a prayer that goes "deliver me from the slander of others and let me control my tongue and mind."
Let my path be compassion and deliverance,
and i pray compassion in my heart I can find."
Criticism should never be aimed at persons but at policies and behavior. We can all love George Bush for his passion about "democracy" and learn something about how good intentions never justify bad deeds. We can also learn from these "internet wars" -- that a half digested concept is not as good as self discipline, practice, cultivation of wisdom, and effort on behalf of others.
Nichiren's concept is valid. However, Nam myoho renge kyo the chant is only effective when it is not divorced from the Lotus Sutra, and the Lotus Sutra is not divorced from truth seeking, good sense seeking, superior practices, and sustained practices.
Chris
Posted by: Chris at June 4, 2008 02:42 PMNam Mu Myoho Renge Kyo is not what the SGI taught you Chris. The Original Buddha Shakayamuni was a real concrete person to Nichiren. The Original Buddha was not a God or someone to fear, the Bodhisattvas from the Earth were the Original Disciples of the Buddha, and if you have in your mind the Lotus Sutra was a fairy tale, it is your right to believe that, I am not going to fight with you, or send you to hell, or hope you get macaroni rash, but it certainly is not at all what Nichiren wrote in the Kanjin Honzon Sho, or the Kaimoku Sho, or any of his man thesis. And, I am not going to snippet fence with you.
I am also saying, there is nothing to WORSHIP. If the Original Buddha was concrete person, than the purpose of the chanting is what? You figure it out, but I am saying, living the Sutra with your life is the way to feel the Buddha in your mind, and feel the merits in your life. That is what is in the Lotus Sutra, that is Ichinen Sanzen, if you try and debate or prove me wrong, it is impossible, just as if you try to prove Nam is the same as Nam Mu.
You hold on to Nam, just like everyone held on to Amida when Nichiren tried to tell them to drop those pre-Lotus teachings because the Original Buddha Shakyamuni ws Amida in a former life.
About Marc, you don't know the back story, or what went on behind the scenes or that I even saved his wife from suicide, the treats I endured from him, he spiritually raped Lamont (on ARBN you thought it was his benefit), so that is why I resented your praise of a very evil person that constantly said to me. Every time you opently criticize me, I will come back ten times harder.
I wish we were friends Chris, you don't really know me. Politics is on your mind, and I am heavily saturated in that area. The latest Democratic Race was a total manipulation of the Democratic Party, Media and unknown factors (no Aliens).
I have never been wrong about any of my predictions regarding Buddhism. I hope you will take a second look at the manipulations that the SGI did to the Nichiren doctrines to spin it away from the Lotus Sutra.
Have a good day,
Bruce
"We can all love George Bush for his passion about "democracy" and learn something about how good intentions never justify bad deeds."
Maybe you can, I can not. I don't believe for a nanosecond that George Bush has any love for democracy. I am more likely to believe that any one who says he does is a liar or a fool and most probably both. The fact that George Bush is a mental incompetent does not arouse any mercy towards him either. He never had any good intentions. He is a liar and murderer.
Posted by: clown hidden at June 10, 2008 02:52 PMScott really has not had much to say. He thinks W is a good man who got bad advice. He says W really did believe there were WMD in Iraq, but was wrong. He seems to think the President was set on invading Iraq, and that colored perceptions of evidence.
The elder Bush was criticized by both sides for not finishing the business in Iraq. Perhaps W did see it as his purpose to complete what his Dad started over there. Maybe history will reveal he was right, maybe not.
I am not sure I see anything new or remarkable here. Nor is the reaction surprising; indeed it is rather mild. People like Dick Morris who rolled on Clintom were treated similarly, perhaps a tad more harshly.
I think the opposition tried to find something to run with here, but there is really nothing to run with. Scott seems like a straight shooter; not am opportunist like Morris, Brock, or Ariana. Those people are still doing what they did before -- political hit pieces -- just for a different side.
Unlike them, Scott does not appear to have flipped sides. From what I can gather, his take on Iraq is not much different from my own. it certainly does not jive with the conspiracy theories. What I am hearing almost comes off as an apology.
He does seem to think the administration messed up, that they rushed into war too quickly, that they did not carefully weigh both sides. That appears to be the atmosphere inside the beltway. It is adversarial. Eight or wrong, they saw people like Wilson as undermining them.
Scott hoped that W would be a fence mender; someone who could bring both sides together. I am not sure that is possible. W tried that with NCLB.
He would up signing the Gore / Kennedy plan; then got reamed by both sides. As Rush says, bi- partisanship in DC generally means Republicans agreeing with Democrats.
The thing is, perhaps the Welfare State and the Opportunity Society are conflicting models. The former treats the symptoms; the latter proposes a cure. The cures proposed perhaps lean too much toward a white collar information & services economy. We need some goods to underpin that.
Peak oil is a chance to do that. Home grown ag products can replace petro fuels, fibers, chems, and plastics. Then, there can be new green industries processing hemp, flax, and even soy
based products.
BTW, the spam bombing I get is mostly bots peddling insurance, porn, viagra. and gambling. IP banning slows it down a bit; but they just shift.
gassho
robin