Since last Tuesday, senior members of the Bush administration have largely put aside their governing duties and become character assassins. Their target: Scott McClellan, previously a member of President Bush's inner circle and, ironically, once a top character assassin himself.
In the world of "loyal Bushies," McClellan's crime is more unspeakable than pushing fake intelligence to lead a country into war or disclosing classified information, such as the identity of a U.S. intelligence agent. McClellan has dared to criticize his now-former friends. In his new memoir, he goes so far as to say that the Bush administration waged a "propaganda campaign" to deceive the American public into supporting the Iraq war. He also accuses Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and Vice President Cheney of encouraging him to "repeat a lie" about their involvement in the Valerie Plame leak case.
The attacks on McClellan have been extremely well-coordinated, with current and former Bush administration officials sticking to tight talking points. They seemed to mostly take their cues from White House Press Secretary Dana Perino's official response, which came out on Wednesday morning. Rove and former homeland security adviser Frances Townsend -- experienced talking heads now affiliated with Fox News and CNN, respectively -- were allowed to respond when on their networks the news broke on Tuesday.
If White House officials' responses to McClellan were swift, it's because they have done all this before. Former counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke, former chief strategist Matthew Dowd, and former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill all received similar treatment after writing their critical memoirs.
A look at the anatomy of a White House smear campaign:
Scott had an emotional breakdown.
McClellan's message packs a punch because it is coming from someone who was once a top loyalist. So the White House has attempted to undermine McClellan by portraying him as an emotionally unstable man. "Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House," said a statement released by Perino on Wednesday morning. "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."
Bush even picked up on Perino's talking point and also said that he was "puzzled." But first out of the box with this line was Rove, who said on Fox News the night before, "This doesn't sound like Scott. It really doesn't, not the Scott McClellan I've known for a long time."
Other former White House officials quickly fell into line on Wednesday:
Dan Bartlett, Counselor to the President: "He's like a fundamentally different person than all of us knew." [CBS] Trent Duffy, former White House deputy press secretary: "The voice that comes out of this book is certainly not Scott McClellan's." [Fox News] Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary: "I am stumped. I'm still stumped. I really don't know how and why Scott has come to this." [Fox News]
This smear is well-suited to attack former members of Bush's inner circle. Conservatives' logic goes that none of Bush's cronies could possibly break rank without having an emotional breakdown. Last April, former Bush-Cheney '04 chief strategist Matthew Dowd came out and said he had lost faith in Bush. "I think he's become more, in my view, secluded and bubbled in," Dowd told The New York Times. Bartlett, in response, attacked Dowd: "He's going through a lot of personal turmoil but also he has a son who is soon to be deployed to Iraq. That could only impact a parents' mind as they think through these issues." These attacks are part of the Bush administration's "You are either with us or against us" mentality. As a result, staffers often don't dissent until it is too late, and when they do, they are overruled or retaliated against for disagreeing. Of course, those officials criticized most harshly, such as Gen. Eric Shinseki and top climatologist James Hansen, have in fact been proven right in the end.
Scott is a greedy money-grubber.
Conservatives are also arguing that McClellan and his publisher spiced up the memoir with overblown criticisms of the President, in order to sell books to a public sick of the Bush administration:
Duffy: "It's like he just turned over the pen to a publisher and signed his name at the bottom and got a big fat book contract." [Fox News, 5/28] Fleischer: "I think what did happen, Bill, was the book was pretty much done and set and Scott went back in, and I think his editor wrote a lot of it." [The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, 5/28] Brad Blakeman, former deputy assistant to the President: "The publisher didn't hold a gun to Scott's head and said -- Scott, write this book. He held a checkbook." [MSNBC, 5/29]
This smear was repeatedly used against Clarke in 2004, when he revealed the Bush administration's disregard for the terrorist threat prior to 9/11. The White House alleged that Clarke was self-serving and greedy for attention. McClellan, in fact, whined that Clarke was "actively going out there and putting himself on prime-time news shows and morning shows to promote this book."
The White House's attacks on McClellan appear to be baseless. McClellan reportedly received only $75,000 in advance for his book, dispelling notions of a get-rich-quick scheme. (As a comparison, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was expected to get "at least a six-figure advance" for his memoir.) Appearing on Meet the Press on Sunday, McClellan also promised to donate a portion of the proceeds of his book to help U.S. troops and their families.
"This was a book that he wanted to write," said Peter Osnos, founder and editor-in-chief of PublicAffairs Books, which published McClellan's book. "No one has ever done a book for us just for the money," said Osnos. "I can say that with absolute certainty."
Scott doesn't know what he's talking about.
McClellan may have been a loyal Bushie, but the White House is now trying to cast him as a naïve, low-level foot soldier. (Evidently, in the Bush administration, the White House press secretary is the equivalent of an intern.)
Rove was the first person to roll out this attack on Hannity and Colmes on Tuesday night, when he responded to McClellan's accusation that in 2005, Rove and Libby secretly colluded to get their stories straight on the Plame case. "Well, first of all, he was not in any of the meeting that I recall discussing this," said Rove. "Well, look, it goes to show how out of the loop he was, that he didn't think we spent much time together."
Later that night on CNN, Townsend also added, "You know, the Press Secretary has a very distinct role. And it doesn't include being in some of the most highly classified, sensitive policy discussions. And, so, I think his view is limited." "I don't think he was in a position to know this," said Bartlett the next day.
Conservatives attempted to dismiss McClellan's revelations as unworthy of any news attention. On Wednesday, Flesicher predicted, "This is a very Washington and people who follow Washington issue, and people tend to read these types of books. … [S]o it's kind of going to be a self-contained story."
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich even joined in, telling Hannity and Colmes on Wednesday, "I'm more concerned about American Idol than I am about Scott McClellan." "Forgive me if I'm bored," said O'Reilly that same evening.
It seems that no matter how senior a person once was in the administration, he was, in retrospect, insignificant. "We didn't listen to [his] wacky ideas when he was in the White House, why should we start listening to him now?" said a senior administration official. That person wasn't talking about McClellan, however, but was referring to O'Neill in 2004, who served in the little-recognized position of Treasury Secretary.
Scott is a left-wing blogger.
Over the past week, McClellan has been called many unkind names by his former colleagues. Townsend said he was "self-serving, disingenuous, and unprofessional." Barlett called his allegations "total crap." Anonymously, White House officials labeled him "traitor," "Benedict," and even alluded to Judas.
In the Bush administration, there are few sins worse than selling one's soul to left-wing bloggers, which is what McClellan supposedly did. Rove, again, was the first one to utter this accusation on Tuesday night: "First of all, this doesn't sound like Scott. … It sounds like a left-wing blogger." The next day, Barlett lamented that McClellan's words now give "credibility to every left-wing attack." "Scott uses the very same words that the far-left uses and I find that troubling because I find it inaccurate," added Fleischer.
Clarke also faced this accusation in 2004, when McClellan actually accused him of trying to help Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) win the presidential election.
The right wing needs to get over its conviction the "liberal left" is responsible for any criticisms of the Bush administration. According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, 67 percent of the American public disapproves of the job Bush is doing. It's doubtful that all these people are left-wing bloggers.
…
When asked by Katie Couric whether current and former White House officials all met to "discuss how to respond to this," Fleischer responded, "No, I think it's just that we all worked shoulder to shoulder with Scott for so long, and we never heard Scott talk about manipulation, talk about propaganda."
Whether or not they all did get together, they have all worked "shoulder to shoulder" in the White House as character assassins and know how the game is played. A White House smear campaign is very tightly coordinated, deploying trusted media-savvy current and former officials to repeat talking points. The reaction to McClellan may be more pronounced because of who he is, but it is indicative of how any employee who dares to publicly criticize the administration is treated. U.S. attorneys who refuse to adhere to a political agenda are fired, whistleblowers face retaliation, and independent-minded scientists are censored.
McClellan was part of this system, and many Americans may see this debacle as reaping what he sowed. McClellan, however, has already apologized to Clarke for smearing him in 2004. "I should have known how personal it would get when they went after me, well, I mean, after what I said about you," he reportedly said.
These smear campaigns are vicious, but they're also ultimately futile. Clearly, the past smears against Clarke, Dowd, and O'Neill didn't stop McClellan from coming forward. The truth will eventually come out, no matter how much the Bush administration kicks and screams. We're anxiously looking forward to Perino's memoir.
