oh right, blogger

I just finished my sophomore year! It's been so long since I've even thought about blogging that I forgot what I titled this thing and everything. I'm glad I remembered it because I have thoughts on Scott McClellan that I would like to preserve on the internet. Also, it's summer again, so maybe I'll indulge myself and write here more often because I seem to be losing this writing habit that I never really had.

So, anyway, what up with Scott? Can you really hate that dude? He's got this pudgy, fresh sort of face that you can't really hate. But for him to write a book that damns the Bush administration and Washington after he stood for three years in front of the press, feeding tightly wound lines to reporters, refusing basic information to Americans, and lying about the administration's role in the Valerie Plame scandal, is sorely detestable. I don't think what Bob Dole said was harsh in the least:

"There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues. No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits, and spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique.

"When the money starts rolling in you should donate it to a worthy cause, something like, 'Biting The Hand That Fed Me.' " Another thought is to weasel your way back into the White House if a Democrat is elected. That would provide a good set up for a second book deal in a few years."

"I have no intention of reading your 'exposé' because if all these awful things were happening, and perhaps some may have been, you should have spoken up publicly like a man, or quit your cushy, high profile job. That would have taken integrity and courage but then you would have had credibility and your complaints could have been aired objectively."

"You're a hot ticket now but don't you, deep down, feel like a total ingrate?"

There's no reason that an adult man like McClellan can offer for continuing to work for an administration that was so clearly misleading us. What happened to that morality that his people always talking about? Right and wrong? Good and evil? He knew what he was doing the whole time he was working there, because being press secretary means crafting a carefully worded message so that you can cover both yours and the White House's ass. He's also kept quiet for a few years now while adding up anecdotes for his book. What's kind of sad for him is that he's getting it from all sides. Bob Dole hates his ass and so does everyone else who thinks he's taking way too little responsibility for his own role in our country's politics.

I think that the job of the press secretary is a really awkward position. Who are you ultimately serving? The president or the people? There's talk that McClellan violated some sort of sacred "covenant" when he wrote this book. But if there's serious shit going on in the White House, Americans absolutely deserve to know. Duh.