Patterico's Pontifications

That and the fact that he’s obviously learned that if you want media attention for a book written by a Republican you need to bash Bush.

kimsch (2ce939) — 5/28/2008 @ 8:31 am

The reaction to this type of event is always the same. “He’s a disgruntled former employee that wants to sell a book.” You really don’t think about it anymore than that, do you?

Anyone that has watched White House Press Briefings during the Bush years knows that whoever they’ve got standing up there is spinning long yarns of bullshit, it actually surprises you to hear one of them admit it?

Levi (76ef55) — 5/28/2008 @ 9:17 am

2, Levi, right, and the Democrats never lie.

You got any other fairy tales you want to tell?

PCD (5c49b0) — 5/28/2008 @ 9:59 am

Levi, the truth is that Scott McClellan* was picked for loyalty and not for competence. He was the most inept, inarticulate, wuss that the press walked all over on, of a press secretary of all time. The Shrub has made tons of mistakes like that — picking incompetent cronies instead of capable people — and I say that even though I like him and respect him. McClellan rose to his highest level of incompetence in accordance with the Peter Principle. This book is an attempt at income from an unempoyable.

*Is he a descendant of Civil War general George McClellan of whom Ulysses S. Grant said, “McClellan is to me one of the great mysteries of the War”?

nk (6c75e0) — 5/28/2008 @ 10:23 am

2, Levi, right, and the Democrats never lie.

You got any other fairy tales you want to tell?

There are lying Democrats to be sure, but I’ll take someone lying about blowjobs over lying about wars and torture any day of the week.

Levi (76ef55) — 5/28/2008 @ 10:26 am

A book of truths would sell maybe 10 copies. A book of lies will sell millions of copies. That is the America we now live in thanks to leadership like the Clintons.
I hope McClellan has a signed employment contract that will take care of him for life. No one, with a brain, would hire the weasel now.

Scrapiron (c36902) — 5/28/2008 @ 10:37 am

Levi, the truth is that Scott McClellan* was picked for loyalty and not for competence. He was the most inept, inarticulate, wuss that the press walked all over on, of a press secretary of all time. The Shrub has made tons of mistakes like that — picking incompetent cronies instead of capable people — and I say that even though I like him and respect him. McClellan rose to his highest level of incompetence in accordance with the Peter Principle. This book is an attempt at income from an unempoyable.

Funny, I don’t seem to remember any accusations of incompetence being hurled at Scott from conservative circles when he was actually on the job. What was your gripe with him? What did he do so incompetently?

It would seem to me that if you couldn’t produce some examples of conservatives complaining about McClellan’s job performance back when he actually had the job, your complaints now, only after he released this book, are probably disingenuous. Wouldn’t that be fair?

Levi (76ef55) — 5/28/2008 @ 10:46 am

“To the Right, McClellan will have been the worst press secretary of modern times”

I thought that then, and I think that more than ever, now. Scott McClellan was the most cringe-inducingly bad press secretary that I can think of, and that’s not post-book spin. He was an awful choice, and to the extent that W’s biggest problem was articulating his larger vision, McClellan was a huge symptom/cause of the problem.

McClellan was, along with letting Sandy Berger off, among the most inexplicable choices made by a president that I like and respect.
Incomprehensible.

driver (faae10) — 5/28/2008 @ 10:47 am

Funny, I don’t seem to remember any accusations of incompetence being hurled at Scott from conservative circles

I am not a circle. And memory problems are not all that unusual. Don’t worry about it. Get off any CNS depressants you may be on, eat well and rest well, and you will see a vast improvement in your memory.

nk (6c75e0) — 5/28/2008 @ 10:54 am

I am not a circle. And memory problems are not all that unusual. Don’t worry about it. Get off any CNS depressants you may be on, eat well and rest well, and you will see a vast improvement in your memory.

Yes, of course. You all have really secretly hated Scott McClellan all along, right. I’ll believe that. I’ve never heard any of the hundreds of prominent conservatives or Republicans that set and define conservative opinion express such sentiment over the years, but I don’t know you, so I must not know what I’m talking about. That’s awfully convenient.

What was McClellan’s biggest failure? I know he was inept and a wuss and all that, but be specific. What was his biggest blunder? To hear you tell it, you’d think McClellan was entirely responsible for the failures of the Bush administration.

Levi (76ef55) — 5/28/2008 @ 11:09 am

Funny, I don’t seem to remember any accusations of incompetence being hurled at Scott from conservative circles when he was actually on the job.

I’ll be charitable and assume that your lack of memory stems from the fact that back then, you either hadn’t been born yet, or your parents had not yet given you your very own computer.

As for President Bush, I guess his best hope is that McClellan is every bit as competent in his new role as an anti-administration spokesman as he used to be when working for it. Otherwise, Bush will never get re-elected in November. Oh, wait…

Xrlq (b71926) — 5/28/2008 @ 11:09 am

— Funny, I don’t seem to remember any accusations of incompetence being hurled at Scott from conservative circles when he was actually on the job. —
.
One has to visit those circles in order to see their contents. Scott was consistently a target of criticism from conservatives, as a deer-in-the-headlights lightweight.

cboldt (3d73dd) — 5/28/2008 @ 11:10 am

5, Levi, you do side and support Democrats who lie about the war and torture. You do it daily, and stupidly, you do it for free.

PCD (5c49b0) — 5/28/2008 @ 11:11 am

5, Levi, you do side and support Democrats who lie about the war and torture. You do it daily, and stupidly, you do it for free.

More likely Levi is getting paid for displaying his stupidity. Seriously. Otherwise he’d be Homeless.

J. Peden (f013f4) — 5/28/2008 @ 11:52 am

What was McClellan’s biggest failure? I know he was inept and a wuss and all that, but be specific.

Uh, when you’re a press secretary, that is failure.

Pablo (99243e) — 5/28/2008 @ 12:00 pm

J.Peden #14 – Parent’s basement …

So, McClelland writes a book and bashes his old boss, and now everything he says is the god’s honest truth, but everything he said before this was a damnable lie.

I had forgotten about how bad he was until Tony Snow came along.

JD (75f5c3) — 5/28/2008 @ 12:25 pm

Tony’s excellence illustrated how bad Scottie was.

JD (75f5c3) — 5/28/2008 @ 12:25 pm

Mr Snow showed how bad every Press Secretary has been for, I dunno, the last 16 or 18 years…

Scott Jacobs (fa5e57) — 5/28/2008 @ 1:22 pm

Me likey Dana Perino. And she’s pretty good at the job.

Pablo (99243e) — 5/28/2008 @ 1:26 pm

Dana ain’t bad… And she’s REALLY easy on the eyes…

But Tony was just the best…

I’m shutting up now, or else I’ll just devolve into tasteless jokes about how hot I think Dana is… 😉

Scott Jacobs (fa5e57) — 5/28/2008 @ 1:29 pm

“Levi, the truth is that Scott McClellan* was picked for loyalty and not for competence.”

– nk

Huh. “Picked for loyalty”? Do slavishly loyal individuals tend to make a habit of writing tomes of lies about the objects of their loyalty?

I do believe McClellan was picked for loyalty (as opposed to competence); I believe a loyal person does his best to tell the truth.

Leviticus (22eefa) — 5/28/2008 @ 1:56 pm

Do slavishly loyal individuals tend to make a habit of writing tomes of lies about the objects of their loyalty?

It’s tough to be loyal when you get fired, I suppose.

Pablo (99243e) — 5/28/2008 @ 2:05 pm

McClellan’s book reveals nothing more than the fact that he learned from Mike McCurry’s mistake.

McCurry was the prime source for Howard Kurtz’s book “Spin Cycle”, on the relationship between the Clinton White House and the press.

Kurtz made a bunch of money when the book because a best seller, and McCurry made bumpkus because he gave Kurtz all his best stuff in their interviews.

McClellan decided to keep his best stories in-house for his own book himself, and he’ll be cashing checks himself unlike McCurry.

Its a very Republican approach.

WLS (68fd1f) — 5/28/2008 @ 2:36 pm

What I should have made clearer, in my earlier comment, is that President Bush is also loyal and too often too loyal.

nk (6c75e0) — 5/28/2008 @ 2:37 pm

scott may have been upset at bush supporting perry over his mother in the texas governor’s race. he left to go work on her campaign and he may have expected some white house love in return for his wonderful work at the podium.

and to show just how easy conservatives were on poor scott, here’s a blast from the past courtesy of Andy McCarthy at NRO.

chas (12a229) — 5/28/2008 @ 7:25 pm

Loyalty. Speaking of. .

Maybe Peggy Noonan was the ghost writer for this thing.

Vermont Neighbor (2464ca) — 5/28/2008 @ 9:40 pm

here’s an interesting tidbit: if you follow the ownership data for the publisher all the way back, it’s owned by George Soros………

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/30118_The_Soros-McClellan_Connection

what’s that smell? %-)

redc1c4 (e3877d) — 5/28/2008 @ 9:53 pm

Scott’s following a similar playbook as his mom, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who switched from being a Democrat to a Republican to run for state office, then as Texas Comptroller in 2003 sided with Democrats in the state legislature in a battle with Gov. Rick Perry over the budget.

Strayhorn’s fight was part of a strategy to take the nomination away from Perry in the 2006 GOP primary. But she lost there and then finished fourth running as an independent against Perry in the fall. Republicans weren’t all that happy with Perry by 2006, but couldn’t get past Strayhorn’s willingness to throw her party under the bus three years earlier when it suited her needs. And she never figured out that her actions in 2003 killed her chances in 2006.

Her son’s in the same position right now, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s just as unaware as to how his actions are being seen by his past co-workers and other associates. To write the book and/or to write some of the passages inside and then go on Keith Olbermann’s show to promote it shows either a certain mendacity driven by a love of money, or a cluelessness about what message he’s sending that he’s probably only now starting to figure out (and if he really did allow his editor to embellish key parts of the book to boost its sales without understanding the consequences, that really is dumb).

A lot of people on both sides of the political aisle said McClellan was in over his head as press secretary. It wouldn’t be a big surprise if, when he starts making the interview rounds, we find out he’s in over his head on the book tour as well.

John (34537e) — 5/28/2008 @ 10:13 pm

He has a point when he complains about being lied to. But that point needed to be made at the time of the lie(s), or when the lie(s) became evident.

This tool is the living Fredo. He even went to the Johnny Ola of media, Soros???

He is dead to the GOP and to anyone who needs/expects loyalty.

Ed (6b8782) — 5/28/2008 @ 10:35 pm

Scott McClellan’s book about Bush after his stint as White House spokesperson should not be all that surprising. We know Bush is the worst president ever from his approval ratings and his actions. The Bush-Cheney White House has always been extremely secretive and I expect a lot of political spin on this one. It is likely that the post-Bush era will see many more “insiders” tell of the horrors of this dreadful Administration.

And of course there will be the classic Republican claims of a “liberal media”, even though this is McClellan’s book. We shouldn’t believe this is possible, even though we all suspect these evil and stupid deeds by Bush. Give it more time, the Bush error will continue to unravel after years of White House control of media contact.

Bush is an embarrassment to Americans and the world. We all will shout it from the hilltops after January 20, 2009.

jay higgins (97228a) — 5/29/2008 @ 4:20 am

Jay Higgins,

You are an embarassment to Liberal Soro paid for tools. Polls are the measure of a President, and neither are Liberally biased Tenured Professors. History is, and the deeds that stand the test of time. Jimmy Carter is more known as a celebrity carpenter and as a victim of a killer rabbit attack than he was as a President.

PCD (5c49b0) — 5/29/2008 @ 5:59 am

And I like Dana Perino as Press Secretary: good looks, good job, and a great name! 🙂

Dana R Pico (3e4784) — 5/29/2008 @ 6:07 am

Scott told non-news back then, and he delivers non-news now. The bush admin as permanent campaign? Deceiving the nation into war? A press that doesn’t do its job? SHOCKING!

stef (fed8bd) — 5/29/2008 @ 6:51 am

“We know Bush is the worst president ever from his approval ratings”
Yes nothing truly assesses the substance of a complex job in global affairs like the opinions of Joe Shmo answering prepackaged questions over the telephone.

“even though we all suspect these evil and stupid deeds by Bush.”
You and your tired one-dimensional fellow travelers believe that “stupid” Bush went back in time and engineered every single calamity that has ever occurred and has already sown the seeds for every evil to come because you cling to your lame, shallow excuse for analysis of world events like a toddler to his binky.

“We all will shout it from the hilltops after January 20, 2009.”
Who’s “we all?” Will you then be administered your soma and admitted to your padded room where you can be lulled into comfort by televised recordings of Obama repeating slowly, “Hoooooope…..Chaaaaaaaaaange……” and you can repeat to yourself “I… AM…PROGRESSIVE MAN! I AM NOT RACIST!”?

Jack Klompus (cf3660) — 5/29/2008 @ 7:14 am

#30 you need to have your psychotropic meds re-evaluated as they ain’t working. Or go back and preach to the choir over at DU/Kos/Codepinko/moron.org/huffPost.

You think a Gore or Kerry would have better responded to 911? Already talk of Lurch as SecState for Obamaturd.

I might argue that the Carter years were really awful and also brought about the genesis of capitulation to islamofascism. Remember the Shah? The embassy kidnappings? the economic malaise for whom your good friend I squat to pee chrissie matthews wrote Carter’s speeches?

LBJ made an unholy mess with his institutionalized generational welfare and micromanagement of Vietnam war with all sorts of ROE that had our troops fighting with both hands behind their backs.

As far as Dubya goes, did Carter or LBJ have a CIA and State Dept. that stabbed them in back endlessly? Oh, right…Carter and Frank Church eviserated our intelligence communities and Clinton’s Jamie Gorelick installed the intelligence wall that prevented FBI and CIA from sharing info related to 911.

Go back to your obamatard dreamworld and petition to idol to allow you a closer access to his anus as you dangle hopefully as a dingleberry from barack hussein’s magical hirsute nether region. Does he really give your ilk a thrill down the leg or is it sciatica?

madmax333 (02cb6b) — 5/29/2008 @ 8:02 am

Dana Perino is quite fine, both as a Press Secretary and a womyn.

JD (75f5c3) — 5/29/2008 @ 8:27 am

Why do you guys enjoy bashing on Levi, you spew so much hatred and anger in your comments and even call him names even when he tries to be polite and respectful. When he decides to respond as we have known “Levi” to respond you will all start crying foul and threatening to cut him off from this blog. Thats not fair. He has a right to disagree with you without the insults.
That said, I think what McClellan did was an act of betrayal. Loyalty is a quality that is fast disappearing in our time.

love2008 (5189d2) — 5/29/2008 @ 9:55 am

#36 how come you are not also defending obamatard

jay higgins on this thread? or all the people Levi curses out?

I guess you are also fine with obama being reluctant to meet with gen. patraeus but excited at the prospects of fellating dinnerjacket, monkey-boy Chavez and assorted other despotic scumwads? You, Levi and Higgins would find good things to say about Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Pot Pol, Genghis Khan, etc. Remember the far left call to hate amerikkka first! change! hope!
Maybe its ok to attack characters when what is said is the truth?

madmax333 (729204) — 5/29/2008 @ 12:28 pm

I guess you are also fine with obama being reluctant to meet with gen. patraeus
Read the news Maddy, Obama is headed to Iraq soon. He has confirmed his willingness to sit with anyone.
how come you are not also defending obamatard

jay higgins on this thread? or all the people Levi curses out? When was the last time Levi actually cursed anyone on this thread? I think he has tried to maintain a civil and respectful conversation so far. Something I wish I could say for you and some others.

love2008 (5189d2) — 5/29/2008 @ 12:44 pm

I predict he’s working for David Brock at Media Matters before the end of the summer.

WLS (68fd1f) — 5/29/2008 @ 12:50 pm

Read the news Maddy, Obama is headed to Iraq soon. He has confirmed his willingness to sit with anyone.

Yesterday, he wasn’t going to participate in a political stunt. Today, he’s realized that McCain pw3ned him.

And he’s not going to sit with Ahmadinejad or Hamas anymore. He’s changey like that and he hopes you won’t notice.

Pablo (99243e) — 5/29/2008 @ 1:28 pm

He has a right to disagree with you without the insults.

He forfeits that right when he leads with insults as he pretty much always does. Plus, he’s dumb as a stump and three times as rotted.

Pablo (99243e) — 5/29/2008 @ 1:30 pm

He has confirmed his willingness to sit with anyone.

Except Iraq and Afghan vets from Illinois who wanted to talk to him. He was IN his office, he just refused to come out and even say sorry…

Scott Jacobs (fa5e57) — 5/29/2008 @ 1:40 pm

Say, did anybody see this at the American Thinker?

Soros Publisher ‘Shaped’ McClellan’s Hit Job: Other publishers don’t recognize it as the same book

Paul (de3f43) — 5/31/2008 @ 12:26 pm

5/28/2008

Captain Ed on the McClellan Book

44 Responses to “Captain Ed on the McClellan Book”

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