This is good. John Stewart runs thru the White House dismissal and attack of McLellan's book to comic effect.

The Daily Show:

Scott McLellan on The Daily Show - 02/06/08



He was also on Hardball and O'Leiley who had a meltdown on camera. Apparently this book is for the "America haters". O'Leiley is soooo 2004 with his loaded words and catch phrases designed to stifle dissent and inquiry.

 Quote:
O’Reilly: You said they used propaganda and that is a loaded word

McClellan: The White House Iraq group, the White House Iraq group was set up, it’s a marketing arm for selling the a war. That was a specific purpose that I talked about in the book

O’Reilly: Because they fervently believed that the guy was a danger and could hand his weapons off.

McClellan: No because the President had a bigger driving motivation which was to transform the middle east.

O’Reilly: You telling me that President Bush didn’t believe they had the,

McClellan: No, he did too. He believed that too.

O’Reilly:That’s not propaganda then, that’s not propaganda.

McClellan: It is when you package it all together—over sell it and over state it to the American people. That is propaganda.


 Quote:
Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.

—Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell, Propaganda and Persuasion


McLellan's book is a best seller too. Expect approval ratings or Bush to sink another 2 digit (i'm confident that one or two of these remaining 28%ers can re-enter reality and not think the majority of America, "hates" America). But more importantly, we can begin to ask McCain if he too still believes the propaganda that got us into the war in the 1st place. Since he seems dug into the Bush doctrine.

And some transcript from McLellan's appearance on Hardball:

 Quote:
MATTHEWS: See, motivation. You say in the book that it came to you later, although I did realize it at the time. Sometime since the time you worked at the White House, you realized that the war was being fought under false pretenses, that the was really not about nuclear threats from Iraq or any other kind of threat militarily. It was really an ideological campaign to try to rebuild the Middle East along Democratic lines.

Some people realized that back at the time. What was your attitude towards those people? I was one of them. I was a small player, I admit. But I was one of those people that always thought this war was really geopolitical. It really wasn‘t about a weapons threat from a small country. What was your attitude towards, for example, Joe Wilson when he came back and wrote that article for the “New York Times?” He said, wait a minute, the vice president knew better. I got sent over because he raised the question about that nuclear arms deal, nuclear yellow cake deal in Niger. I knew that the White House wasn‘t being square on this.

Why were you so tough at the time on people that believe then what you now?

MCCLELLAN: We‘re caught up in the politics as war mentality. Those that were against us were viewed as our enemies. That‘s a destructive part of what the culture in Washington, D.C. right now. But we were out there seeking to discredit those who were criticizing us and questioning the intelligence. We now know in many ways, they were right about the intelligence.

MATTHEWS: Were you at a war with the CIA? I have information that the White House believed at the time that the CIA was leaking all over the place, blaming the war on the vice president‘s office, on the failure of Scooter Libby and the vice president to adequately convey to the American people the true nature or lack of it of any nuclear threat from Iraq. That was coming out from the CIA, obviously, going to Walter Pinkus, going to Kristoff and people like that. Did you at the time see not just the media as your enemy but the CIA as your enemy.

MCCLELLAN: There was certainly that attitude within the White House. There‘s an attitude that the CIA, the analysts, were trying to undermine the policy makers. I think in retrospect, looking back, when I reflected on that, we should have been listening more to what some of those doubters or dissenters were saying about the intelligence?

MATTHEWS: Yes, can you confirm that Karl Rove saw Valerie Wilson as fair game?

MCCLELLAN: I can‘t confirm that. I think that‘s actually something that you confirmed, if I remember correctly.

MATTHEWS: I‘m trying to get additional witness to this. Just to put it in context, you believe, as the press person for the White House, that the CIA was seen as the other side of this fight in terms of this press war and getting out the—winning the fault game.

MCCLELLAN: Well, some within the CIA, certainly those involved in that area, to some extent that was happening. I think—

MATTHEWS: And you have the vice president leading that fight in your book. You say he was the guy running the fight to discredit Joe Wilson and his wife.

MCCLELLAN: I think that‘s been pretty well documented. We‘re never going to know the full back story, I don‘t believe, because you‘re not going to hear anything from the vice president. You‘re certainly not going to hear anything from Scooter Libby now that he‘s been given a commutation and likely a pardon by the end of the administration.

MATTHEWS: Do you think he was promised all that when he went and lied about his conversation with Tim Russert about me? Do you think he knew he was going to get protection at the end and that‘s why he was willing to take the wrap for perjury and obstruction?

MCCLELLAN: I have no idea. Patrick Fitzgerald is the one that said that when Scooter Libby lawyers said that he was trying to put a cloud over the vice president, he said, no, Scooter Libby put the cloud over the vice president. We just don‘t know those facts and we‘re never going to. The vice president won‘t ever talk about this, I‘m sure.


On Libby and Valerie Plame:

 Quote:
MATTHEWS: I‘m oddly impressed by this man and his loyalty. Let me ask you this, this is the key to your book, this atmosphere of permanent campaigning, we have to win, the other side has to lose. Did that contribute to his idea that he had to take this final fall, that he had to behave the way he did? It took the White House into criminality. Is there a connection?

MCCLELLAN: Probably. There probably is. He certainly viewed everybody on the outside that was criticizing us as enemies. That‘s the vice president‘s mentality. The vice president is very that way as well. I think it did reflect the top of vice president‘s office as well.


Damning damning and damning. When do the hearings start? It'll be interesting to see just who gladly swears under oath and who fights it tooth and nail.