What Happened?

What indeed. For those of you who don't recognize that phrase (What Happened), it is of course the title of the new book by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClelland. This book is causing a lot of fury right now, and I for one am getting a real kick out of it. Considering that my "real job" is running a book store, I'm all for anything that will drive book sales.



What I really get a kick out of is seeing my liberal friends fall for every Bush-bashing comment that is made in this book. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not one of these people who is going to say "It's all a bunch of lies", because first of all, I haven't read it, and secondly, once I do (and I will) I will probably believe most of the claims that Mr. McClelland makes. Not all of them, but most.



And the funniest thing of all is watching the Libs trip over themselves without even stepping back to see the wholes in some of McClellands stories. For example, my good friend Chris over at http://www.redhogdiary.wordpress.com/ wrote: "McClellan asserts that the aides - Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff - “had at best misled” him (or in other words they lied) about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity." This is based on the fact that Libby and Rove had met with each other. Was McClelland in the meeting? No. Did Rove and/or Libby discuss what they talked about in the meeting with McClelland? No. So McClellands assertions are assumptions at best.

One of the big questions that has been making the rounds on the cable news channels, talk radio and the blogosphere lately has been this: If McClelland was so put off by the inner workings of the Bush Administration, why not quit or express your concern at the time? I mean if Scott McClelland is the honorable man he paints himself to be in this book, why do "Satan's work" for all of those years?

Before we attempt to answer that question (and really, the answer is pretty simple), lets look at what McClelland himself had to say when another former Bush appointee wrote a "tell-all" book after leaving the White, former U.S. National Security Council advisor Richard Clarke. McClelland was asked why he thought Clarke wrote his book.

McClelland replied: “Well, why, all of a sudden, if he had all these grave concerns, did he not raise these sooner? This is one-and-a-half years after he left the administration. And now, all of a sudden, he’s raising these grave concerns that he claims he had. And I think you have to look at some of the facts. One, he is bringing this up in the heat of a presidential campaign. He has written a book and he certainly wants to go out there and promote that book”

Speaks volumes, doesn't it? Oh, and the answer to why McClelland didn't step down and why he is writing that book now - follow the money!