The Propaganda Poster Boy

It’s been a long time since I journeyed to the site of the Presidential Prayer Team For Kids to find out the new ways that our government is trying to deceive those who are most vulnerable in our country. Assuming I could ever get a straight answer out of the ruling cabal of ideological zealots(and I know I couldn’t), I’d like to know how much money from our tax dollars (or one foundation or another with cozy ties to Bushco) is being spent to produce this.

Well, who do you think this site is promoting this week? Why, it’s that model of clarity and cooperation with the White House press corps (which, with one or two notable exceptions, is composed entirely of lap dogs anyway). I’m referring to none other than Scott McClellan!

Here is the site’s glowing writeup which gives only a patronizing nod to discernible reality:

Scott McClellan has the important job of representing President Bush to the members of the media on a day-to-day basis. His relationship with the White House Press Corps is based on trust and honesty, and he faces their probing questions in order to give the most accurate and helpful information to the people of the United States.

Scott McClellan is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin where he was the president of his fraternity and played varsity tennis. He worked for then Governor Bush during his campaign and was the traveling press secretary for the Bush-Cheney campaign during the 2000 presidential campaign. Prior to holding his current position, Scott McClellan was an assistant press secretary until Press Secretary Ari Fleischer resigned in 2003. He married the former Jill Martinez—a volunteer in the White House—in November 2003. They have a house full of pets—two dogs and three cats, all of them rescued. The couple has no children. Mr. McClellan is a Methodist and recently read Rick Warren's bestseller, "The Purpose-Driven Life."

To commemorate this overdue recognition, I thought that it would be a good idea to recount some of Scotty’s more memorable episodes of providing “accurate and helpful information” through “truth and honesty.”

Why, I recall his attack on Helen Thomas as if it were yesterday (courtesy of Democratic Underground - Update 5/30/08: An actual link was added that I didn't originally include, this from Brendan Nyhan):

McCLELLAN: Well, Helen, the President recognizes that we are engaged in a global war on terrorism. And when you're engaged in a war, it's not always pleasant, and it's certainly a last resort. But when you engage in a war, you take the fight to the enemy, you go on the offense. And that's exactly what we are doing. We are fighting them there so that we don't have to fight them here. September 11th taught us -

THOMAS: It has nothing to do with - Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

McCLELLAN: Well, you have a very different view of the war on terrorism, and I'm sure you're opposed to the broader war on terrorism. The President recognizes this requires a comprehensive strategy, and that this is a broad war, that it is not a law enforcement matter. Terry.

TERRY MORAN: On what basis do you say Helen is opposed to the broader war on terrorism?

McCLELLAN: Well, she certainly expressed her concerns about Afghanistan and Iraq and going into those two countries. I think I can go back and pull up her comments over the course of the past couple of years.

MORAN: And speak for her, which is odd.

McCLELLAN: No, I said she may be, because certainly if you look at her comments over the course of the past couple of years, she's expressed her concerns –

THOMAS: I'm opposed to preemptive war, unprovoked preemptive war.

MR. McCLELLAN: - she's expressed her concerns.

“Fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here” – some of the most bogus lies are the ones that truly stand the test of time. Am I right?

Or Scott’s illuminating information on whether or not we harbor detainees who are inaccessible to the International Red Cross; another bout with Helen Thomas (thanks to Paolo, a commenter at The Daily Kos in July of ’04)

MR. McCLELLAN: ...Go ahead. Oh, I'm sorry, Helen. Go ahead.

Q Does the President -- does the United States harbor or hold secret detainees who are not available to the International Red Cross?

MR. McCLELLAN: Actually, this is an issue that came up earlier in the week and I talked about it at that point. When it comes to the International Committee for the Red Cross, we work very closely with them on detainee issues, and we --

Q I have a follow-up.

MR. McCLELLAN: Okay -- we stay in close and regular contact with the Red Cross on all the issues related to detainees. And they do, from time to time, raise issues and we work to address those issues directly --

Q Why don't you answer the question? Do we have secret detainees and is it possible that they could be subjected to the same treatment as in Baghdad prisons?

MR. McCLELLAN: We work to address these issues that the Red Cross raises directly with the Red Cross. And any issues that they have, we respond directly to the --

Q That's not the answer to the question.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- Red Cross. We meet with them on a regular basis at a variety of levels, and we stay in close and constant contact with them. And I really don't have anything else to add to this issue.

Q You don't know whether we have secret detainees --

MR. McCLELLAN: Like I said, Helen, I don't have anything else to add to this issue.

Or this “truthful” exchange from July of 2003 regarding whether or not Karl Rove revealed Valerie Plame’s identity (courtesy of Atrios/Billmon - a related link is here)…

QUESTION: The Robert Novak column last week . . . has now given rise to accusations that the administration deliberatively blew the cover of an undercover CIA operative, and in so doing, violated a federal law that prohibits revealing the identity of undercover CIA operatives. Can you respond to that?

McCLELLAN: Thank you for bringing that up. That is not the way this President or this White House operates. And there is absolutely no information that has come to my attention or that I have seen that suggests that there is any truth to that suggestion. And, certainly, no one in this White House would have given authority to take such a step.

QUESTION: Scott, has there ever been an attempt or effort on the part of anyone here at the White House to discredit the reputations or reporting of former Ambassador Joe Wilson, his wife, or ABC correspondent Jeffrey Kofman?

McCLELLAN: John, I think I answered that yesterday. That is not the way that this White House operates. That's not the way the President operates . . . No one would be authorized to do that within this White House. That is simply not the way we operate, and that's simply not the way the President operates.

QUESTION: In all of those cases?

McCLELLAN: Well, go down -- which two?

QUESTION: Joe Wilson and his wife?

McCLELLAN: No.

QUESTION: Wilson now believes that the person who did this was Karl Rove . . . Did Karl Rove tell that . . .

McCLELLAN: I haven't heard that. That's just totally ridiculous. But we've already addressed this issue. If I could find out who anonymous people were, I would. I just said, it's totally ridiculous.

QUESTION: But did Karl Rove do it?

McCLELLAN: I said, it's totally ridiculous.

Yep, it sure is. That's why Patrick Fitzgerald has "Scooter" Libby on charges for it, right?

So let us all Praise Him in thanks that we have such a fine, upstanding Texas Methodist such as Scott McClellan to read “The Purpose-Driven Life” and provide the American people with everything we need to know to function as informed citizens in this great republic.