Who among you would not sell out for a big payday especially if it was entirely popular to bash the group who happens to be his former employer?

News outlets are reporting that Scott McClellan says the "turning point" for him as far as unreasoning support for the worst President in a century was when he realized that Libby 'n them had lied to him about the outing of Valerie Plame.

So, as I understand it, it wasn't learning that the Ayudministrashun attacked Iraq without any plan for what to do after the initial shooting ended, or seeing the criminally negligent equipping of our troops, or the revelation that the Ayudminstrashun's excuse for the attack was not merely untrue, but based on fabricated evidence and the willful disregarding of contrary intelligence.

No, what got McClellan's britches in a twist was that they lied to ***him*** about Valerie Plame.

"Lie to ***them*** [the American public] all you want, Scooter, but you dasn't lie to me."

What a joke.

Is this the same who wrote "Broken Heartland"? If so, what a great book, and I hope you become a regular War Room contributor!

If he really wrote honestly, then historians will value this work more than people do today. Today it is simply a "gotcha" book about Bush, even though it't too late to do anything about him. But future generations of historians will appreciate being able to compare the public stories with insider information.

My impression of McClellan during the whole time that he was Press Secretary, was that he was really not cut out of press secretary cloth. He seemed naive and he did seem uncomfortable with telling untruths. He was not good at prevaricating.

While there may be valid arguments that he should have spoken out much earlier, where does one think he and we would be if he had? Would things really be any different if he had spoken out then? Would he have been believed? Not him acting alone. Right or wrong, I am giving him the benefit of the doubt, and "ER", once again did you actually read the article? It pretty much refutes that he "sold out" for the big bucks. Is this all you are good for on every thread I happen to read? Snark and snipe that is frequently off target and unsubstantiated?

McClellan's book will prompt a cycle of anguish and soul-searching within the American press that has yet to hit its stride. Give it another few months to really kick in — like, about 6 months, plus a few days.

It will probably be full-blown by, oh, a rough estimate would be about January 20 of next year, with the mainstream news falling all over itself to right past wrongs by becoming the tireless critics of the ruling party in Washington.

And this sweeping, sincerely-felt, massive repentance will go on for years. At least 4 years, possibly 8. Or possibly longer.

Who knows? How long it takes for the press to really prove that they've earned the nation's trust again is something that's hard to predict. But someday, thanks to Scott McClellan's righteous and totally non-politically-timed book, another day will come (say January 20, some years from now, just as a wild guess), when the press will declare that, having fully exonerated its own self from its past misdeeds, it's now time to enter yet another new phase of journalism in which a return to cooperation is called for.

Yes, this is clearly a completely heartfelt, honest confession from someone who has never been a script-pusher for the American right wing in the past and should be accepted at face value this time.

Unfortunately "the facts", like "the law", have a minimal effect on how things work in government these days. It's perception and politics that win the day.

So, Mr. McClellan might not get much money out of his book but most people will still hear, and frequently believe, that he sold out for a big payday. Even if he made accusations of blatantly illegal actions he observed during his tenure at the White House it wouldn't matter in this environment.

It all comes down to who is better at getting their message out; being right isn't enough. Just ask Al Gore.

Who cares if McClellan "sold out for a big payday"? There's this weird misdirection critics are trying to create, whereby if McClellan did in fact write the book for personal gain, then the claims contained within it don't carry any weight. Isn't it entirely possible that:

a) McClellan saw an opportunity to make a quick buck, and so wrote his book, and...

b) What he wrote is painfully, obviously true?

The first rebuttals coming from the White House and parts of the press corps were all attacking McClellan's motives for making the claims he did, but I saw almost no direct acknowledgement of the claims themselves. It's the last line of defense for an indefensible administration.

Give me a break.

Even with a modest advance, the book, royalties on a hardcover book are likely to yield McLellan something in the range of $2.50-$3 a book, minimum. (it retails for $27.95). That means, even if he got a $100,000 advance, he only has to sell something like 25,000 books to earn out. After that, royalty checks start coming.

Given the attention the book has, and its position on Amazon, it's likely to end up a NY Times bestseller as well. Give it even a month or two on the bestseller list, and you're talking 300-400,000 copies.

That's $700-900K (less his agent's commission, of course, usually 15%).

Then you talk about paperback rights for a hardcover, and there's another couple of hundred thousand.

I'm not saying that what he wrote isn't true, or that he did this for the money. Sounds more like he's developed some last ditch semblance of morals, ethics or a conscience -- something he clearly lacked for the decade he shilled for Bush and lied to the media -- and is now trying to make good.

Too little, too late, Scottie, I say. Might have had some respect for this idiot had he fessed up when he was in the midst of it, but as far as I'm concerned, he's another Bushie who is going to hell with the blood of thousands on his hands, tell-all confessional book or not.

But let's not sugarcoat it Osha. He stands to make at least a million dollars or potentially much more, so his little trip to Truth-land -- even if it's with a dinky publisher -- is going to pay a helluva lot more than being press secretary does.