Enlarge AFP/Getty Images file Then-White House press secretary Scott McClellan speaks to the press on board Air Force One en route to Tuskegee, Ala., in this April 2006, file photo. The former White House spokesman has sharply criticized the Bush adminsitration in a new book.   HEADLINES FROM POLITICO.COM Breathless speculation marks veepstakes Wed, 28 May 2008 04:46:09 EST Exclusive: McClellan whacks Bush, White House Tue, 27 May 2008 18:18:45 EST Playbook: 'Matrix' strafes the nest Wed, 28 May 2008 09:10:58 EST   BLOG POSTS FROM POLITICO.COM Is Sali vulnerable in Idaho? Wed, 28 May 2008 12:01:00 EDT Clinton writes supers: I can win Wed, 28 May 2008 11:59:00 EDT Rove: McClellan sounds like a 'left-wing blogger' Wed, 28 May 2008 11:41:00 EDT

"Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House," said White House press secretary Dana Perino. "For those of us who fully supported him, before, during and after he was press secretary, we are puzzled. It is sad — this is not the Scott we knew."

Perino said the reports on the book, titled What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, had been described to President Bush, and that she did not expect him to comment.

"He has more pressing matters than to spend time commenting on books by former staffers," she said.

In the book, McClellan, who served as press secretary from July 2003 to April 2006, touches on a number of White House topics and personalities, including former Bush political strategist Karl Rove.

He writes that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated "political propaganda campaign" led by Bush and aimed at "manipulating sources of public opinion" and "downplaying the major reason for going to war. "

Regarding Bush, he writes that the president "convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment," and has engaged in "self-deception" to justify his political ends.

Rove, who was singled out for particularly strong criticism, said the book excerpts are "not the Scott McClellan I've known for a long time."

"It sounds like a left-winger blogger," he said on Fox News' Hannity and Colmes program.

Frances Fragos Townsend, a former Bush administration official, tells CNN that McClellan's claims are "self-serving, disingenuous and unprofessional."

"People need to understand that as an adviser to the president, I or Scott have an obligation, a responsibility, to voice concerns on policy issues," she says. "Scott never did that on any of these issues, as best I can remember, and as best I know from my White House colleagues."

Ari Fleischer, McClellan's immediate predecessor as press secretary, told Fox News he was heartbroken over the book and that he was "scratching my head" over it.

In the book, McClellan accused Rove, and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's former chief of staff, of deliberately misleading him about their involvement in leak of a CIA operative's name.

He singled out what he described as a "suspicious" private meeting between Rove and Libby around the time that the story about their possible involvement in the matter was particularly hot.

"The confidential meeting also occurred at a moment when I was being battered by the press for publicly vouching for the two by claiming they were not involved in leaking (Valerie) Plame's identity, when recently revealed information was now indicating otherwise. … I don't know what they discussed, but what would any knowledgeable person reasonably and logically conclude was the topic? Like the whole truth of people's involvement, we will likely never know with any degree of confidence."

Libby was later convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the CIA leak case.

McClellan, whose ties to Bush go back to their days in Texas, also strongly criticizes the administration's handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and writes that the White House "spent most of the first week in a state of denial."

McClellan blames Rove for engineering a photo-op that shows Bush looking out the window of Air Force One at a devastated New Orleans as the plane flew back to Washington from Texas.

McClellan says he and counselor to the president Dan Bartlett had opposed the idea and thought it had been scrapped, but that he later was told that "Karl was convinced we needed to do it — and the president agreed."

In response to the book, Rove said on Fox's Hannity and Colmes show that McClellan was wrong to suggest that a meeting between he and Libby was a rare occurrence. He said the two often discussed policy issues, or speeches or the vice president's schedule. He also denied any improper discussions with Libby involving the CIA leak case

"Both of our attorneys told us not to talk to anybody else in the White House about anything connected with that (case,) so we didn't," Rove said.

Regarding the New Orleans flyover, Rove said the White House faced a "horrible, horrible choice" to either land Air Force One and divert resources from the immediate rescue efforts or to fly to the north of the city and appear to be turning a blind-eye to the tragedy.

"If we landed, we'd have diverted valuable resources from the immediate effort to save people's lives and that was simply not unacceptable to the president," Rove said.

Rove, who described McClellan as "out of loop" on many White House matters, said the former press secretary did not speak up at the time if he had felt strongly about some issues, particularly the war.

"If he had these moral qualms, he should have spoken up about them," Rove said. "And I don't remember him speaking up about them."

Contributing: Associated Press

Enlarge By Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer via AP A crewmember watches on a monitor on Monday as the stage is fine tuned for Tuesday's Democratic debate in Cleveland.  CLOSE-UP: BARACK OBAMA In-depth: Latest Obama news, video, photos, timeline, more ... Barack Obama on the campaign issues: Iraq | Immigration | Health care | Education | Abortion | Gay civil rights  CLOSE-UP: HILLARY CLINTON In-depth: Clinton news, videos, photos, timeline, more ... Hillary Clinton on the campaign issues: Iraq | Immigration | Health care | Education | Abortion | Gay civil rights  TRACE THE '08 RACE IN POLLS USA TODAY's interactive presidential poll tracker helps you dig into the polling trends nationwide and in major primary states.

The moderators — NBC's Brian Williams and Tim Russert — ran excerpts of the senators attacking each other, including Clinton ridiculing Obama's "hope" message. She said she had "tangled" with drug and insurance companies in trying to reform health care and "I do think we need a fighter back in the White House."

"I am absolutely clear that hope is not enough," Obama said. But he said that "if the American people are activated, that's how change is going to happen." He added that Clinton had alienated not just drug and insurance companies in her failed 1993-94 health care reform effort but fellow Democrats.

MSNBC billed the debate at Cleveland State University as "do or die," and that wasn't far off. Clinton, of New York, has lost 11 contests in a row to Obama, of Illinois. Clinton advisers, including her husband, have said she needs to win Texas and Ohio on March 4 to stay viable.

Clinton was on the defensive from the start, when Williams asked about her angry weekend attack on Obama over mailers she said distorted her health care plan.

"This is a contested campaign," Clinton said, and it's important to let voters know where there are differences and misrepresentations.

Obama answered that Clinton has used all kinds of negative mailings, ads and phone calls against him, and "we haven't whined about it because I understand that's the nature of these campaigns."

Clinton said Obama's mailing wrongly said that she would "force people to have health care whether they could afford it or not" and could have been written by "the insurance companies and the Republicans." Her plan would require people to buy coverage, and she says she would make it affordable.

Some undercurrents surfaced in the faceoff, including Clinton camp complaints about unfair treatment by the media. "I seem to get the first question all the time," Clinton said. Referring to a Saturday Night Live satire of kid gloves treatment of Obama, she added, "Maybe we should ask Barack if he's comfortable and needs another pillow."

Some of the sharpest exchanges came over Iraq and foreign policy. Clinton said Obama chairs a subcommittee on Europe but had held no hearings on how to strengthen NATO's hand in Afghanistan. She also said Obama had unwisely "threatened to bomb Pakistan."

Obama said he had never made that threat, but had proposed to strike terrorists within Pakistan if the government there were unwilling or unable to do so — something he said the Bush administration did just several days ago.

Twisting a line Clinton often uses, he said she was "ready to give in to George Bush on Day One" on Iraq and had helped Bush "drive the bus into the ditch." He also said her stand on Iraq was "essentially similar" to likely GOP nominee John McCain's "until (she) started running for president."

Both candidates have emphasized economic growth plans in this state, where manufacturing is in decline and tens of thousands have lost jobs. They said in the debate they would reserve the option to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement if they could not get Mexico and Canada to renegotiate the pact.

The moderators asked Obama about a recent statement of support from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Obama said he considers Israel's security "sacrosanct" and has denounced Farrakhan's anti-Semitic remarks.

Clinton responded that she had "rejected" unwelcome support in her 2000 Senate campaign at some political risk and said his denunciation was not enough. "I don't see a difference between denouncing and rejecting," Obama said, but "I'm happy to concede the point and I would reject and denounce."

Obama hedged about whether he would take public money for the general election if he is the nominee, as he once said he would. Clinton was vague on when she'd release her tax returns except to say not before the next primaries. "I'm a little busy right now," she said.

Obama v. Clinton		USA TODAY/Gallup Poll
Which characteristic applies more to Barack Obama or to Hillary Rodham Clinton?
	Obama	Clinton
Has the best chance of winning in November	63%	30%
Is honest and trustworthy	50%	37%
Has vision for country's future	50%	40%
Shares your values	48%	40%
Cares about needs of people like you	48%	41%
Understands daily problems Americans face	47%	43%
Is strong and decisive leader	42%	49%
Has clear plan for solving country's problems	39%	49%
Can get things done	40%	53%
Who would better handle the following issues?
	Obama	Clinton
Government corruption	57%	33%
Energy, including gas prices	47%	42%
Iraq	48%	44%
Economy	44%	46%
Environment, including global warming	42%	44%
Terrorism	44%	47%
Health care	36%	57%
Source: USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of up to 519 Democrats taken Thursday through Sunday. Margin of error +/- 5 percentage points.

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MWRData wrote: 4m ago

Will Obama paint the White House beige ?

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