Not That I'm Defending President Bush...

W. has done many things for which he deserves a kick the pants, but let's take Scott McClellan's book with a grain of salt. After all, what former White House adviser doesn't eventually write a "tell all" critique of the administration he or she worked for. George Stephanopolous did it. Dick Morris did it; more than once if I'm not mistaken. Timing is everything, and I think the timing of his book's release speaks louder than any one of its chapters could. And no, I haven't read the book.

Mr. McClellan said it best when speaking of Richard Clarke's book excoriating the Bush Administration over 9/11 and CIA intelligence failures: 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…

ht: Robert, commenting at the Malcontent, for reminding me of McClellan's quote.