[Reactor]

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan blames President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for efforts to mislead the public about the role of White House aides in leaking the identity of a CIA operative.

In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, McClellan recounts the 2003 news conference in which he told reporters that aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were "not involved" in the leak involving operative Valerie Plame.

"There was one problem. It was not true," McClellan writes, according to a brief excerpt released Tuesday. "I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff and the president himself."

Bush's chief of staff at the time was Andrew Card.

Plame told CBS News Evening News anchor Katie Couric she believes her identity was leaked in a newspaper because her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had gone on a fact-finding mission for the CIA before the Iraq war, publicly accused the president and others of lying to justify the invasion.

"We understood that he would be criticized deeply," Plame told Couric. "I never once considered that in fact this administration would betray my identity as payback for his criticism."

The book excerpt, posted on the Web site of publisher PublicAffairs, renews questions about what went on in the West Wing and how much Bush and Cheney knew about the leak. For years, it was McClellan's job to field - and often duck - those types of questions.

Now that he's spurring them, answers are equally hard to come by.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said it wasn't clear what McClellan meant in the excerpt and she had no immediate comment. McClellan turned down interview requests Tuesday.

McClellan's book, "What Happened," isn't due out until April, and the excerpt released Monday was merely a teaser. It doesn't get into detail about how Bush and Cheney were involved or reveal what happened behind the scenes.

In the fall of 2003, after authorities began investigating the leak, McClellan told reporters that he'd personally spoken to Rove, who was Bush's top political adviser, and Libby, who was Cheney's chief of staff.

"They're good individuals, they're important members of our White House team, and that's why I spoke with them, so that I could come back to you and say that they were not involved," McClellan said at the time.

Both men, however, were involved. Rove was one of the original sources for the newspaper column that identified Plame. Libby also spoke to reporters about the CIA officer and was convicted of lying about those discussions. He is the only person to be charged in the case.

Since that news conference, however, the official White House stance has shifted and it has been difficult to get a clear picture of what happened behind closed doors around the time of the leak.

McClellan's flat denials gave way to a steady drumbeat of "no comment." And Bush's original pledge to fire anyone involved in the leak became a promise to fire anyone who "committed a crime."

In a CNN interview earlier this year, McClellan made no suggestion that Bush knew either Libby or Rove was involved in the leak. McClellan said his statements to reporters were what he and the president "believed to be true at the time based on assurances that we were both given."

Bush most recently addressed the issue in July after commuting Libby's 30-month prison term. He acknowledged that some in the White House were involved in the leak. Then, after repeatedly declining to discuss the ongoing investigation, he said the case was closed and it was time to move on.

When it rains it pours...

 

[X3pilot]

*sigh* And speaking of pardons, Jeebus can pardon "Scooter" and 2 turkeys, but two border agents are sitting in solitary for shooting an illegal Mexican drug smuggler and won't get pardons to protect the US District Atty who's a Bushie.

Goddamitt I'm embarrased to be a Texas resident sometimes....

 

[blue]

Make the bastards testify and then indict them on perjury. Woot!

 

[sanjuro]

impeach

 

[kidwoo]

Goddamitt I'm embarrased to be a Texas resident sometimes....

When are the times you're proud?

 

[Transcend]

Make the bastards testify and then indict them on perjury. Woot!

Will never in a million years happen They tried. Bush decided that they could testify; behind closed doors and with no transcript.

 

[RenegadeRick]

Will never in a million years happen They tried. Bush decided that they could testify; behind closed doors and with no transcript.

I seem to recall Bush (or was it his people?) saying that if the President leaks classified information it is no longer classified because at that moment it ceased to be so. Therefore no law was broken because the decider decided it wasn't. Of course any rational individual would know this as treason, but it ain't if the decider decided to decide it wasn't, as it decidedly appears he decided.

God bless America™.

 

[MikeD]

*sigh* And speaking of pardons, Jeebus can pardon "Scooter" and 2 turkeys, but two border agents are sitting in solitary for shooting an illegal Mexican drug smuggler and won't get pardons to protect the US District Atty who's a Bushie.

Goddamitt I'm embarrased to be a Texas resident sometimes....

You left out "altering the scene of the shooting and concealing the facts" in the list of what those BPAs did.

 

[$tinkle]

ummm...huh?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21917188/

WASHINGTON - Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan does not believe President Bush lied to him about the role of White House aides I. Lewis Scooter Libby or Karl Rove in the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, according to McClellan's publisher.

Peter Osnos, the founder and editor-in-chief of Public Affairs Books, which is publishing McClellan's book in April, tells NBC from his Connecticut home that McCLellan, "Did not intend to suggest Bush lied to him."

Osnos says when McClellan went before the White House press corps in 2003 to publicly exonerate Libby and Rove, the problem was that his statement was not true. Osnos said the president told McClellan what "he thought to be the case." But, he says, McClellan believes, "the president didn't know it was not true."

again, you people have to stick w/ your principles on plamegate: either bush is a liar, or he's ignorant, but not both.

 

[ohio]

ummm...huh?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21917188/

again, you people have to stick w/ your principles on plamegate: either bush is a liar, or he's ignorant, but not both.

I don't see in either article where he says Bush lied. He says Bush passed along false information. So ignorance is your answer.

Now with Bush the lines between ignorance and willful ignorance and wishful thinking are all pretty blurry.

 

[RenegadeRick]

OK, so I am a little slow here and so Scott's publisher says that Scott does not believe that Bush lied, and yet his quote clearly says that he thought Bush was involved. So we should believe second hand information over first hand information, right?

So if we and Scott, and Bush were simply misled, who lied?

 

[$tinkle]

^^^ surely, as a paulian, you can appreciate the deft obfuscation

 

[ohio]

OK, so I am a little slow here and so Scott's publisher says that Scott does not believe that Bush lied, and yet his quote clearly says that he thought Bush was involved. So we should believe second hand information over first hand information, right?

So if we and Scott, and Bush were simply misled, who lied?

He says Bush was involved in it in the same way he himself was, unknowingly passing along false information:
""I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff and the president himself."

I don't have a hard time believing that Rove and Cheney were the malicious ones here, and shielded the rest from knowing what was or wasn't true.

 

[SPINTECK]

Now it's obvious it was CHeney b/c only he's powerful enough to spin this blame to BUSH. Everyone is so distracted by this new variable to the equation that no one is talking about Cheney any more.

You've got to be kidding me- Bush know anything?? Baby Bush is just a puppet and has no clue what is going on. All he does is memorize talking points and play with his dog.

Cheney, Bush senior and all their hidden allies run this show world wide.

 

[RenegadeRick]

I don't have a hard time believing that Rove and Cheney were the malicious ones here, and shielded the rest from knowing what was or wasn't true.

So since Rove has already resigned, we should

?

 

[ohio]

So since Rove has already resigned, we should

?

I would love nothing more. I think this whole "we won't impeach them because it will make us look petty" thing the Democrats have going on is bull****.

And Rove wouldn't be "impeached" but he can certainly be charged as a civilian.