How are we in Liberal Land reacting to Scott McClellan? I wrote in a comment this morning that I thought we lefties would mostly be forgiving. “I think we appreciate that he’s going through a process of waking up to reality. As long as we see him struggling to be honest, I think most of us will wish him well,” I said.
Maybe I spoke too soon. I see that Buzzflash is calling Scotty the “hypocrite of the week.”
This probably is the Buddhist in me talking, but we all stumble through life in a fog of self-delusion. Some of us are foggier than others, of course. My impression is that Scotty allowed himself to be a useful tool of the Bush Administration because he honestly believed the Bushies were the good guys. It wasn’t until he was shoved out of the White House bubble that some of the fog began to clear and he saw what had happened in a different light.
So, my feelings are those of a missionary toward a sinner who wants to come to Jesus, and I’m ready to forgive his sins. But that’s me.
Here’s a true clip & save: McClatchy Newspaper — “Memo to Scott McClellan: Here’s what happened.”
I agree, Maja. I have a strong belief in the wisdom of you who are without sin, cast the first stone counsel.
However, there’s another category of ‘tellers’ that I find really odious – the neocons who have, since it became obvious that the Iraq invasion was a tragic mistake, defected from what was basically a lot of their doing. Where’s the outrage toward them. (Interesting that McClellan is getting ‘stoned’ while the Bill Kristols get hired by the NYTimes to write a column in its newspaper.)
You have a point, maha, and I do appreciate it when cronies don’t stay bought. History and the public benefit when minions blab. But I fault him for not telling us anything that we didn’t know already.
Forgiveness requires not just confession but atonement. I’ll think well of him after he turns states evidence at the war crimes trial.
Scott is apparently not finished with his service as a scapegoat. I hope he can continue to serve his country with some truthful testimony in court. That’s when I will forgive his long disservice while on our payroll.
I just have one question for him – How is the press supposed to ask the tough questions when the press secretary keeps calling on Gannon/Guckert for softballs?
I give him credit for getting off his chest what must have been an incredible amount of dissonance. That should even help his health. He must feel better getting a few tons off his shoulders…maybe even liberated.
For the moment it only seems like Scott doing what is good for Scott. Maybe it’s only coincidence that this bit of truthiness is good for the rest of us too.
Too bad he didn’t come to his senses earlier. There’s no straddling fences with Bush. You either pickle oneself in contradictions or burn bridges and don’t look back.
The banner quote that pacific views leads off with seems to apply: ‘”You’ve been had. You’ve been took. You’ve been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amok”. – Malcolm X’
And I’ll add my own phrase “You’re being conned!” What new things have we learned from the “McClellan Masterpiece”? Anything new at all? Doesn’t it seem odd that he’s only confirming what’s already out there? Are we so delighted that a “member of the inner circle” has confirmed everything we knew that we’re going to stop looking? Don’t you think you are suffering from the same heady euphoria that must have aflicted Dan Rather when he received that very well prepared packet of tainted pablum that cost him his career?
“The amazing thing about a dancing bear is not how well he dances, but that he dances at all.”
Scott was a loyal mouthpiece for the administration. He did not have special sources. I agree that there is probably ‘nothing new’ in his book. What’s amazing is not what he says but who is saying it. I’m delighted, and I hope we see more insiders defect to the truth.
Like with Colin Powell, it’s too little, too late.
I’ll let Scotty wrestle with his own demons because only he can know his own heart, and the sincerity of his motives. But like Doug Hughes( comment #6), I’m delighted also that somebody of note is taking a shot at Bush and his corrupt administration.. My hope is that a constant dredging up of Bush’s deceits and lies about the invasion of Iraq just might provide the impetus to hold him accountable for his crimes. To my mind, Bush is a war criminal who has managed to evade the call for justice by the use of an effective propaganda machine and an army spinless underlings.
The Invasion of Iraq is the biggest blunder in American history and the truth of what happened and why it happened has to be resolved before this matter can be put to rest. The final dollar figure( forget the lives) in Iraqi expenditure will end up at over at over a trillion dollars…What will we have to show for it?
Sigh! Perhaps I need Buddhism because I am having a harder time of the forgiveness thing, and here is why: I am having a hard time trying to believe he was that stupid that he didn’t know.IF in fact he was in this fog that you speak of forgiveness might be easier…
I feel like in the big scope of things I am pretty dumb and even I KNEW BETTER…it is hard to believe anyone who I would certainly expect(hope) to be smarter than myself could be so dumb!
Today I was thinking about how sometimes someone will say something and EVERYONE in the room knows it is complete bullsh….. ahhhh mule fritters- yet everyone says NOTHING and lets a big fat lie slide right on by unchecked.
Perhaps scottie is afraid to be a part of a big ole pack of war criminals(that ship has sailed scottie) and he is trying to tell everyone now that he was Mr.Innocent….who is he trying to convince us or himself?If he thinks he can wash the blood off of his hands so easily more power to him,,, but back here in reality land the stain is still showing.
I am perhaps the most un-trusting skeptic on the planet but it seems to me Scottie is trying to start covering his ass NOW because he fears what will be uncovered and discovered in the future and fears even more the fact that the bushies will no longer be in power to protect him from a pesky little detail called truth.
Maybe it is dawning on him that the rapture did not come and the pooh pooh MAY indeed someday hit the fan(don’t count bush out yet I am still hearing that bush has plans to attack Iran in the summer and that may be true given the report on CNN last night about the combat troops leaving Iraq…(keep those rapture hopes bush promised ya alive!)
I just don’t buy the “innocent little me” routine ..Lets get real…he was replaced when he was no longer useful.He spoon fed a hungry press lie after lie and when no one was buying it anymore he had outlived his purpose…everyone from the press to innocent little scottie has some lame- weak ass excuse for not speaking up and forgiveness may be a lot easier for those whos family has not paid the ultimate price…but on behalf of ONE of the thousands of families who lost someone because of those lies it just aint washing with me…as a matter of fact all of their petty rationals make me really really sad for them and our country…”Have they no shame ??” would have been my title for this piece..Thousands die and all scottie and the press seem concerned with is clearing their own names and minds?.I think it is pretty damn sad they are able to let themselves off the hook with such ease…I don’t give a rats ass if scottie ever feels good enough about himself after the damage he and all of bush’s little cult followers have done …why should they walk around with the nerve to have a clear conscious when mothers still mourn for their children? Sorry..I don’t care if he was sold a bill of goods or not..and I would be willing to bet KARMA won’t care either and she, my friends, is a bitch!
I will be willing to forgive after justice is served and accepted by this group of thugs and their loyal minions . You can’t just say “oops I was hood winked into supporting the killing of who knows how many….but now that I admitted it it’s all good.” We forgive people in our society AFTER they have been held to account and not before or instead of time served and that seems right to me…That has not happened here… The dude didn’t spill a glass of milk or fart in a elevator this is a big big deal for crying out loud…viva and a little bit of lysol aint gonna be able to touch this mess!Scottie OWNS a big ole chunk of that mess BTW …maybe it would be easier to forgive if he seemed man enough to….but this? RATS from a sinking ship if you ask me..RATS I tell you.
It didn’t take guts or courage to say what everyone already KNEW you KNEW!!! Courage is about speaking the truth when you see it.Who a person is means more than a job. That is the reason we all don’t (most of us) rob banks and go around killing people…sure it may pay well but MOST of us would have the guts and brains to get up and say” Hey you know what ?, this is wrong and I wont do it!”. Scottie is not a drooling idiot(no offense to droolers)…he knew.Why do they all lack the class and good taste to just crawl back under the rock in shame from whence they came?
I’m with the Rude Pundit on little Scottie.
The Right has a “Soviet” problem: It’s belief in “The Cult of Prsonality.” (See Lenin, Stalin, Reagan, and Bush).. As cult leader’s they have almost Messianic power over their followers.
When Scottie was under the sway of Bush’s personality cult, he could only act like a sheep. Only when he broke away from the buble could he see the forest for the trees. And, like other cult members who break away, he is currently being vilified and demeaned.
I’m with you maha, let’s forgive him. But I’m not buying his book because there’s nothing in it I don’t’ already know and didn’t know for a long, long time.
Welcome to the real world, Scottie…
Ooops, should read, “It’s the belief in…”
The ironies of all ironies here is that McClennan’s approach is like a twelve step program. He jumped right on down to Step 9:
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others
with his apology to Richard Clarke.
Just imagine a world where der chimpy had followed his drinking cessation with some therapy and a step or two. Instead we get some version of “I can’t remember doing coke”. Now if we could just hear from Colin Powell.
justme: “it is hard to believe anyone who I would certainly expect(hope) to be smarter than myself could be so dumb!”
justme, you are marvelling at what I call the Puzzle of Non-Prophesy; namely, how could the people on top have been so dumb when so many people at the bottom knew better? When an outsider proves to be ten times smarter than the insiders, is it because they have IQ 100 and he has IQ 1000? Or is it that he has IQ 100 and they have IQ 10?
The answer is; usually the latter. Most prophets have only mildly superior brains; their real advantage is having vastly superior spines. They say out loud what everybody thinks quietly.
What stupifies the insiders? There are several explanations: the Peter Principle (employees in a hierarchy rise to their level of incompetence), Acton’s Axiom (power corrupts) and the SNAFU Principle (information cannot cross a power gap).
… so putting it together, they’re incompetent, corrupt, and uninformed.
Little Scotty’s mom is a Texas politician who has run for office as a Republican, Democrat and I think even as an independent. Austin-based, McClellan was a regular at that city’s gay bars.
McClellan was ideal for the Bushies, because I think they always meant to throw him overboard when it became convenient. He was a tool, maybe even an unwitting one.
I don’t forgive him. He’s got quite a ways to go before he redeems himself a la David Brock. But I’m certainly on his side. However late to the table, he’s chosen to finally work for peace.
I can deal with that.
I don’t know if it’s in McClellan’s book – probably not – but here’s hoping he’ll follow this “bombshell” with a more personal work, a self help tome on what it means to be a recovering Republican in the age of Bush. He could provide some guidance to others who are also waking up, and groping toward the light. I’m only half kidding.