Publication: Progressive Review
Ex-Press Aide: Bush Misled US | |
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THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW - June 5, 2008
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Ex-Press Aide Writes That Bush Misled US on Iraq
by: Michael D. Shear, The Washington Post
Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes
in a new memoir 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."
McClellan includes the charges in a 341-page book, "What
Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's
Culture of Deception," that delivers a harsh look at the
White House and the man he served for close to a decade.
He describes Bush as demonstrating a "lack of inquisitive-
ness," says the White House operated in "permanent
campaign" mode, and admits to having been deceived by some
in the president's inner circle about the leak of a CIA
operative's name.
The book, coming from a man who was a tight-lipped defender
of administration aides and policy, is certain to give fuel
to critics of the administration, and McClellan has harsh
words for many of his past colleagues. He accuses former
White House adviser Karl Rove of misleading him about his
role in the CIA case. He describes Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice as being deft at deflecting blame, and he
calls Vice President Cheney "the magic man" who steered
policy behind the scenes while leaving no fingerprints.
McClellan stops short of saying that Bush purposely lied
about his reasons for invading Iraq, writing that he and
his subordinates were not "employing out-and-out deception"
to make their case for war in 2002.
But in a chapter titled "Selling the War," he alleges that
the administration repeatedly shaded the truth and that
Bush "managed the crisis in a way that almost guaranteed
that the use of force would become the only feasible
option."
"Over that summer of 2002," he writes, "top Bush aides had
outlined a strategy for carefully orchestrating the coming
campaign to aggressively sell the war.... In the permanent
campaign era, it was all about manipulating sources of
public opinion to the president's advantage."
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McClellan, once a staunch defender of the war from the
podium, comes to a stark conclusion, writing, "What I do
know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and
the Iraq war was not necessary."
McClellan resigned from the White House on April 19, 2006,
after nearly three years as Bush's press secretary. The
departure was part of a shake-up engineered by new Chief
of Staff Joshua B. Bolten that also resulted in Rove
surrendering his policy-management duties.
A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on the book,
some contents of which were first disclosed by Politico.com.
The Washington Post acquired a copy of the book yesterday,
in advance of its official release Monday.
Responding to a request for comment, McClellan wrote in
an e-mail: "Like many Americans, I am concerned about
the poisonous atmosphere in Washington. I wanted to take
readers inside the White House and provide them an open
and honest look at how things went off course and what
can be learned from it. Hopefully in some small way it
will contribute to changing Washington for the better and
move us beyond the hyper-partisan environment that has
permeated Washington over the past 15 years."
The criticism of Bush in the book is striking, given that
it comes from a man who followed him to Washington from
Texas.
Bush is depicted as an out-of-touch leader, operating in
a political bubble, who has stubbornly refused to admit
mistakes. McClellan defends the president's intellect -
"Bush is plenty smart enough to be president," he writes
- but casts him as unwilling or unable to be reflective
about his job.
"A more self-confident executive would be willing to
acknowledge failure, to trust people's ability to forgive
those who seek redemption for mistakes and show a readiness
to change," he writes.
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In another section, McClellan describes Bush as able to
convince himself of his own spin and relates a phone call
he overheard Bush having during the 2000 campaign, in
which he said he could not remember whether he had used
cocaine. "I remember thinking to myself, 'How can that
be?'" he writes.
The former aide describes Bush as a willing participant
in treating his presidency as a permanent political
campaign, run in large part by his top political adviser,
Rove.
"The president had promised himself that he would
accomplish what his father had failed to do by winning
a second term in office," he writes. "And that meant
operating continually in campaign mode: never explaining,
never apologizing, never retreating. Unfortunately, that
strategy also had less justifiable repercussions: never
reflecting, never reconsidering, never compromising.
Especially not where Iraq was concerned."
McClellan has some kind words for Bush, calling him "a man
of personal charm, wit and enormous political skill." He
writes that the president "did not consciously set out to
engage in these destructive practices. But like others
before him, he chose to play the Washington game the way
he found it, rather than changing the culture as he vowed
to do at the outset of his campaign for the presidency."
McClellan charges that the campaign-style focus affected
Bush's entire presidency. The ill-fated Air Force One
flyover of New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina struck
the city, was conceived of by Rove, who was "thinking
about the political perceptions" but ended up making
Bush look "out of touch," he writes.
He says the White House's reaction to Katrina was more than
just a public relations disaster, calling it "a failure
of imagination and initiative" and the result of an
administration that "let events control us." He adds: "It
was a costly blunder."
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McClellan admits to letting himself be deceived about the
unmasking of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, which
resulted in his relentless pounding by the White House
press corps over the activities of Rove and of Cheney aide
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in the matter.
"I could feel something fall out of me into the abyss as
each reporter took a turn whacking me," he writes of the
withering criticism he received as the story played out.
"It was my reputation crumbling away, bit by bit." He also
suggests that Rove and Libby may have worked behind closed
doors to coordinate their stories about the Plame leak.
Late last year, McClellan's publisher released an excerpt
of the book that suggested Bush had knowledge of the leak,
something that won McClellan no friends in the
administration.
As McClellan departed the White House, he said: "Change
can be helpful, and this is a good time and good position
to help bring about change. I am ready to move on."
He choked up as he told Bush on the South Lawn, "I have
given it my all, sir, and I have given you my all."
Bush responded at the time: "He handled his assignments
with class, integrity. He really represents the best of
his family, our state and our country. It's going to be
hard to replace Scott."
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Staff writer Michael Abramowitz contributed to this report.
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