Disgruntled former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan who served from May 2003-April 2006 writes in his memoir due out next week that he was pushed out to leave earlier than he had wanted. McClellan says that President Bush "veered terribly off course" and was not "open and forthright on Iraq" likewise criticizing the White House Press Corps as "complicit enablers" for focusing on covering the march to war.Scott McClellan pictured here along with his wife, their daughters and his Mother, Texas Independent Gubernatorial Candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn making a concession speech in November, 2006
Angry and bitter that George Bush wouldn't support his Mother's candidacy for Texas Governor in 2006 when she left the Republican Party to run as an Independent against GOP Incumbent Governor Rick Perry, McCellan took to the lecture circuit and began writing his memoir.
The White House responded to Scott McCellan's book calling it "self serving sour grapes" as he panders the talk show circuit attempting to sell his book.
Just last year McCellan said publicly that he didn't believe that George Bush lied to him about the leak of CIA Operative Valerie Plume's identity, though he now states that the White House permitted him to repeat a lie.
McCellan now calls Vice President Dick Cheney "the Magic Man" who "always seemed to get his way...could not contain his deep seated certitude, even arrogance..."
Attempting to explain his sudden change from defender to critic of the Bush Administration, McCellan claims to be learning from his personal mistakes in order to become a better person, being true to his Christian faith.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino described George Bush as "surprised" by McCellan's book but that the President wouldn't have anything to say for the "...President has more pressing matters then to spend time commenting on books by former staffers."
Fran Townsend, former Security Advisor of the White House Counter-Terrorism Office and now a CNN Commentator said of McCellan's book, "this now strikes me as self-serving, disingenuous and unprofessional."
