The PR Flunky Who Cried Wolf

I really don’t want to waste anyone’s precious time by opining on the revelations from Little Scottie McClellan in his new book, but I want to share some brief observations (I also more or less said something when I embedded that “Countdown” video Tuesday from last November where K.O. and David Shuster report on the “teaser” for McClellan’s book here).

First, I think it’s appropriate to link to the one post I have that best captures what he was all about, and here it is (the outright lies, obfuscations, baiting of Helen Thomas, the whole foul “course” – also, the post from January ’06 was actually kind of sloppy on my part with some misspellings and missing links; I could find two a few minutes ago that were close to what I was commenting on, but that was it…my bad there).

Second, why should we care that McClellan is restating what has long been obvious to anyone in this country with a pulse (“ooh, Cheney is arrogant, the Iraq war was a mistake, the president is out of touch”; at this point, I defer to profmarcus again here). Unless anyone under the Capitol Hill dome besides Robert Wexler is willing to talk impeachment, then don’t waste my time.

Third, I want to know how much money McClellan is going to donate from his book sales on behalf of our brave men and women who served in Iraq and were maimed or killed in part because of his contemptible practice. He can appear on “Real Time With Bill Maher” and elsewhere and yuk it up as much as he wants, but blaming “a culture of deception” won’t rebuild a fractured nation, solve the world’s worst refugee crisis, bring anyone who has died back to life (including innocent Iraqis) or purge his soul of the moral rot willingly inflicted upon it by his handlers.

Update 6/1/08: Fair enough, Scotty.

Update 6/3/08: In this detailed critique by Dan Froomkin of WaPo (h/t Atrios), this excerpt stood out for me concerning whether or not McClellan should have any sympathy at all...

"When words I uttered, believing them to be true, were exposed as false, I was constrained by my duties and loyalty to the president and unable to comment."

Game, set, and match, Scotty.