Scott McClellan

18 Stories

Plame Cover-Up Continues, McClellan Says on Hill

Bush lacking 'openness and candor' by not coming clean in leak case, on Iraq run-up

(Newser) - Scott McClellan took to Capitol Hill today, and in what one Republican dismissed as “book-of-the-month club” meeting, took on the CIA leak case and the Iraq war, among other topics. The former White House press secretary said he didn’t know if a crime had been committed in the...

McClellan to Testify on Plamegate Claims

Lawmakers will ask if Bush, Cheney told ex-spokesman to lie

(Newser) - Scott McClellan agreed today to testify about Dick Cheney's role in leaking the name of a CIA agent, the AP reports. In a hearing next week, House lawmakers are expected to ask him about his claim that Cheney and President Bush told him to "exonerate Scooter Libby" as White...

Cheney May Have Told Libby to Out Plame

'Scooter' told FBI agents it's 'possible' that VP gave order

(Newser) - "Scooter” Libby told the FBI it was “possible” that Dick Cheney ordered him to out CIA agent Valerie Plame to the press, the Washington Post reports. The revelation appears in a redacted FBI report under examination by a House panel led by Henry Waxman. The panel now wants...

Dems' Prints All Over McClellan's 'Bitter Retort'

Leak account has Novak wondering who really wrote book

(Newser) - Scott McClellan's treatment of the Valerie Plame leak case has a key player wondering who really guided the former press secretary’s pen. "His robotic performances from the White House podium seemed only to disgorge what he had been told, and What Happened has the similar feel of someone...

Ex-US Commander in Iraq Bashes Bush in Memoir

President once proclaimed, 'Kick ass!'

(Newser) - Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who led US forces in Iraq for a year after Saddam’s ouster, says George W. Bush “led America into a strategic blunder of historic proportions” in a memoir the Washington Post deems “lost in the media furor” over Scott McClellan's. Sanchez recounts...

McClellan Blasts Bush for Not Firing Rove

Role in Plamegate was enough to can him, ex-Bushie says

(Newser) - President Bush should have fired aide Karl Rove over the Plamegate affair, Scott McClellan said today. Publicizing his Washington tell-all book, McClellan also blasted Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Dick Cheney's ex-chief of staff, for denying they had leaked CIA agent Valerie Plame's name, the AP reports. "We...

Shoot at the Facts, Not at the Messenger
Shoot at the Facts,
Not at the Messenger
OPINION
May 30, 2008 5:21 PM CDT

Shoot at the Facts, Not at the Messenger

Noonan, finding book believable, urges shift in debate on McClellan's work

(Newser) - Scott McClellan isn't someone Peggy Noonan found herself admiring, she writes in the Wall Street Journal, but she did end up “believing him" after finishing his memoir. He didn’t pen his story to make friends or salvage his image, but rather to set the record straight as he...

Bush Mob Sets Its Sights on McClellan
Bush Mob
Sets Its Sights on McClellan
Opinion
May 30, 2008 3:55 PM CDT

Bush Mob Sets Its Sights on McClellan

Backlash makes Lupica ponder who's 'the real bum here'

(Newser) - The Bush administration's reaction to Scott McClellan's new book should look familiar to anyone with HBO, with one important difference, writes Mike Lupica in the Daily News. "it has become clear by now that even the hoods from The Sopranos would be out of their weight class with George...

Frankenstein Betrays His Master
 Frankenstein
 Betrays
 His Master 
 
OPINION
May 30, 2008 1:35 PM CDT

Frankenstein Betrays His Master

McClellan flips sides but still a master of mindless talking points

(Newser) - In Scott McClellan, the White House built a Frankenstein monster to regurgitate its “talking points, monotonously if not mindlessly, no matter what argument or fact stood in the way,” Dana Milbank writes in the Washington Post. Well now the monster is back, with “famous fealty to his...

Furious Dole Calls McClellan 'Miserable Creature'

GOP bigwig savages ex-press secretary

(Newser) - Bush turncoat Scott McClellan may have taken his hardest hit yesterday in a personal message from Bob Dole, who called the ex-press secretary a “miserable creature.” “Your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits, and spurred on by greed,...

CNN Reporter: Corp. Execs Pushed Media to Play Up War

Jessica Yellin explains 'deferential' attitude Scott McClellan alluded to

(Newser) - CNN reporter Jessica Yellin charged on-air last night that “the press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives” to present the Iraq war consistently “with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings.” Responding to Scott McClellan’s complaint that reporters were...

McClellan: I Believed Bush
 McClellan: I Believed Bush 
May 29, 2008 9:16 AM CDT

McClellan: I Believed Bush

Says he's answering 'loyalty to the truth,' that White House wanted him silent

(Newser) - Affection and loyalty blinded Scott McClellan in the run-up to the Iraq war, but now the former press secretary has found a higher allegiance—“a loyalty to the truth.” McClellan, whose book is causing a media storm for alleging President Bush ran a “propaganda” campaign about the...

Anchors (Except for Katie) Just Don't Get It
Anchors (Except for Katie) Just Don't Get It
opinion
May 28, 2008 9:13 PM CDT

Anchors (Except for Katie) Just Don't Get It

Response to McClellan flap is embarrassing, says writer

(Newser) - Katie Couric thinks Scott McClellan has a point with his criticism of the media in the lead-up to the war, but Charlie Gibson and Brian Williams beg to differ—and that's a disgrace, writes Glenn Greenwald in Salon. During a get-together of network anchors, the "painfully empty-headed Gibson" and...

Journos Pick at McClellan Portrayal
 Journos Pick 
 at McClellan
 Portrayal 
OPINION
May 28, 2008 3:56 PM CDT

Journos Pick at McClellan Portrayal

Some get defensive at ex-spokesman jabs; others agree

(Newser) - Scott McClellan writes in his memoir that “the ‘liberal media’ didn't live up to its reputation” on Iraq. “If it had, the country would have been better served.” Some insider reactions:
  • “You know you're a wussy press corps when the former White House Press Secretary
...

Rove Brushes Off McClellan Claims on Plame Deception

Says he didn't mislead anyway

(Newser) - With the political world abuzz over the harsh tone of Scott McClellan’s new memoir about the "culture of deception''  in the Bush White House, Karl Rove is defending himself against one of the former spokesman’s most damning claims—that Rove and Scooter Libby colluded in a Valerie...

McClellan Blasts Bush in Harsh New Memoir

Former spokesman says president used 'propaganda' to sell war

(Newser) - Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan blasts President Bush for not being "open and forthright" about the war in Iraq and using "propaganda" to sell it, Politico reports. The president "veered terribly off course," McClellan writes in his surprisingly harsh new memoir. He also criticizes the...

Loose Lips Sell Books
Loose Lips
Sell Books
Nov 25, 2007 4:30 AM CST

Loose Lips Sell Books

McClellan's the latest spokesman to dish on a prez, but this time prez is still serving

(Newser) - Add speaking ill of current officeholders to the funeral pyre of political life. The latest former insider to cash in? Scott McClellan, who, in his forthcoming memoir as President Bush's chief spokesman, seems to blame his ex-boss for his own false statements about the CIA leak scandal. White House press...

Bush Blamed in Plamegate
Bush Blamed in Plamegate
Nov 20, 2007 6:20 PM CST

Bush Blamed in Plamegate

Press secretary says Bush gave him false information

(Newser) - Bush's ex-press secretary says he falsely exonerated Scooter Libby and Karl Rove in the outing of a CIA agent in 2003 because the president told him to, Salon reports. A leaked excerpt of Scott McClellan’s upcoming memoir says that his misinformation came from "the president himself" when McClellan...

18 Stories