Didn’t stay bought
If former Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan isn’t going to Hell, nobody’s going. He helped the Bush administration use big-lie tactics to sell a war that has killed over six hundred thousand people. Now he’s written a memoir in which he simultaneously accuses the Bush administration of dishonesty, and denies that he himself was an enthusiastic part of the conspiracy.
He must think we’ve all got short memories. McClellan claimed to possess proof that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons. He claimed Iraq supported terrorists. He claimed that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program. (These are documented at the excellent searchable database on Bush administration lies at http://www.publicintegrity.org.) He strongarmed reporters who dared ask embarrassing questions about the war. He lied for Bush about the Valerie Plame Wilson affair and then refused even to stand by his own remarks about the subject.
These lies, told with his very own lips, he spins as “It’s just the way the game’s become played in Washington….” You’ve heard this argument before, usually from fourteen-year-olds, and usually phrased as “Everybody’s doing it.” Bullshit. He’s a liar. He knew he was lying. He could have refused to lie, but he didn’t because he knew he’d get fired. Simple as that. And he’s still lying now. Because “I was deceived” sells more books than “I’m a lying scumbag.”