McClellan first appeared on Larry King Live the evening Libby was convicted, assuring Larry that Libby's conviction "changes the equation with the American people" by forcing the White House to come clean on the Vice President's office's activities, and clarifying that he did not lie, he was lied to.But McClellan went further with Newsweek, positively seeking to hem in President Bush on the question of pardoning Libby:
"I know the way he's approached pardons," says Bush's former press secretary Scott McClellan. "If you boil it down, it's two things. One, that they serve their time. And two, that they express remorse for the crime."Basically, McClellan is publicly reminding Bush that it would be a violation of his own standards to pardon Libby, and certainly to do so any time soon. And to leave clear how unlikely it is that Libby will express remorse. And who do you suppose the former White House staffer quoted damning the OVP at the end of the Newsweek article is?
As this quotation also indicates, McClellan has remained loyal to Rove and the White House proper. But he is doing what he can to make life more difficult for Cheney and Libby. I suspect he is on to something with regard to Bush's resistance, thus far, to the immediate and shameless (and at times hilariously ill-informed) calls from many conservatives to pardon their ideological comrade in arms."What you saw was a vice president's office that was out of control," says a former White House staffer who asked not to be named talking about internal discussions. According to trial testimony, White House aides Karl Rove and Ari Fleischer both disclosed the identity of Wilson's wife to reporters. But the way the White House sees it, Rove and Fleischer "went up to the line," the staffer says, "but they didn't cross it. The vice president's office crossed it."
--Jeff Lomonaco
