Scott McClellan is a good guy and I forgive him

Scotty's conscience just couldn't take it anymore. He tried to but he just couldn't handle it any longer. Scotty knows the damage he caused, he obviously feels he has an awful lot to make up for, and he's doing something about it.

If there is any doubt here (which there was a small amount with me), consider that he didn't have to very sincerely apologize to Richard Clarke. But he did.

Scotty was complicit in covering up impeachable offenses, felonies and war crimes. But I can forgive just about anyone when they appear to be this sincere and full of this much regret, if not grief. I can and do forgive Scotty. We all should. He's acknowledged he did wrong and he's doing his best to fix it the best way he knows how. None of this makes what he did as press secretary right. It doesn't excuse him from being complicit in the above mentioned crimes and he may still have to stand trial for his part in it. But just like the family that finds it in their hearts forgive someone who murdered a family member, I forgive him.

for the first time, I think the guy was really telling the truth. We'd seen him lie so often, the difference was striking.

complicit Germans whose consciences weighed heavily as the Allied forces made their way into Germany.

It's a common reaction.

Basically, he was made to look like a fool when he was sent out to defend Karl & friends from Leakgate, when all the while, they were just leading him on and not letting him in their inner circle of folks who knew the truth.

He feels like they damaged his reputation, feels burned and resentful. Now he's giving them payback.

I just don't buy his act, or his contrition about the Iraq War. Could you imagine the statement it would've made if the White House spokesman resigned because he didn't feel he could defend the war? What a loss. Now he's just a guy trying to sell a book. I reserve the right to change my mind about him based on new evidence, but for now, he's still one of Them to me.

Sheesh. Give me a fucking break.

FUCK HIM

birthright that the Bush administration and its friends stole from us. Our land, our environment, our wealth, our schools, our cultural traditions, our democratic values, our human rights, the trust of our friends around the world, then we will all be friends.

He clearly feels remorse, but coming clean will not repair the horrible damage that he enabled. Think Enron, Guantanamo, the many innocent dead in Iraq, the state of the pensions and 401(K) plans of elderly Americans (which is yet to be discovered) and I could go on and on. All this, McClellan and his cohorts in the Bush propaganda machine made possible. Without his PR staff, Bush would have been impeached shortly after 9/11, and the country would have been the better for it.

Bush's administration may have destroyed our democracy. It will take a long time to heal the tears in the fabric of our society that Bush intentionally inflicted in order to obtain and keep himself in power.

We should forgive McClellan, but we should also ask him these questions: In the future, how do we prevent the lying and intimidation that Bush got by with? How do we get our rights back? How do we regain the respect of the world? How do we revive the dead? How do we heal the wounds that Guantanamo has inflicted on its prisoners some of whom were children when they arrived? How do we persuade the extreme right that they were fooled? How do we get our free press back?

...because he came clean.

but was corrupted at some point by blindly following Bush for some idealistic reason. He was mislead into following "the path to the dark side". He realized just how messed up he was, he realized just how complicit he was in evil and he is now very contrite.

Then again, one of my weaknesses is thinking all people are basically good. I refuse to think anyone is really born bad. I believe bad people were made that way somehow or some way.

Scotty was big time kool aid pusher. I wish him well and God Speed in his recovery. Stay honest Scotty! Kool aid recovery doen't happen over night.

The right is doing their best to isolate him. It would be detrimental to his message if the left did the same.

Quite simply, it is not the person but the message. The right has successfully separated us from our liberal giants (Michael Moore, Ralph Nader, Cindy Sheehan...), they will do their best to isolate Scotty from political analysis on both the left and the right.

As remarked by Robert Kuttner(in a different context) on Tapped...

"All of which puts me in mind of Michael Kinsley's astute observation that the right welcomes converts while the left considers them unreliable. Ronald Reagan, after all, used to be a New Deal Democrat. But this didn't scare off any of his conservative supporters. Rather, they grasped that his New Deal roots and ideological odyssey only enhanced Reagan's electability."

http://www.prospect.org/cs/blogs/tapped_archive?month=05&year=2008&base_name=kathy_scores_some_devastating#106731

when she comes out with her book?

I give him credit by coming forward but now what is Congress going to do?

Perino seems to revel in being evil. I don't expect her to come out of it. If she did, it would depend on what she said, how she said it and how she acted.

I can live with that. But I always knew he was shilling for the Resident. If he honestly didn't know (and what idealist does?) then I'm willing to forgive. The rest of them need to be sent to the Hague. Immediately.

forgot to add.

To the American people who funded this BS war?

He's got a long way to go before he gets a pass from me.

a boatload of guilt over his complicity in the war. I have to feel sorry for him, because the burden of that guilt would drive me insane, if not to suicide.

I have no glee in me for what he is going through...

organizations that care for veterans?

its always better late than never

as to call him a good guy. But I'm glad he's spilled some beans on this abomination of an administration.

Apologizing to Clarke was a good thing, too. If it was sincere, it shows that Scotty's a bigger man than some, and I can appreciate that.

One of my favorite photoshops of Scotty has him at the podium with his hands held up, and the word balloon says something about Cheney behind the curtain with a shotgun pointed at Scotty's back. Maybe there was a smidge of truth to that bit of humor after all.:shrug:

He made his bones working with Bush in TX-- knew him long enough to know what the guy was about before he accepted the position in the White House.

From where I sit, his act of contrition is nothing more than a (very) clever marketing tool in order to pump up the sales of his book. And make no mistake, this book is not the Swan Song of his career.

That being said, since I'm in no position to know the man's soul or his sincerity, I'm in no position to grant him nor deny him forgiveness.

he have caught on sooner and not played the game for so long and so well?

I guess I'm looking at this like at least there's one I can forgive and let it go. Maybe it lessens my anxiety over all this.

In any event, my forgiveness does not mean I don't think he should be prosecuted to the full extent of both domestic and international law for his complicity in impeachable offenses, other felonies and war crimes. He should be prosecuted. Sentencing should depend on how cooperative he is.

believe that he was a "good guy". But I'm not hearing any evidence that indeed he's a "good guy". Couldn't the same be said for Bush/Cheney/Rove/Wolfowitz etc etc? Sure, good people sometimes do bad things. Taking this another step, are Bush etc forgiven too?

In my opinion, these folks are mentally and emotionally unstable and dangerous. Does that also make them good guys? I don't think I need to forgive them, they would probably benefit from looking at themselves with a clearer eye and taking stock of what they've done/created, then see about redeeming themselves. Then I might see about "forgiving" them. otherwise, it's just Waaayyyyy too early to get into forgiveness....for me.

I don't think so...

He is a liar, a snake, a coward...he helped the criminals in this administration sell their lies to the public and over 4,000 of our troops are dead, as are thousands upon thousands of innocent Iraqis. Valerie Plame was outed and her career finished because of this "good guy."

Fuck Scott McClellan.

He was a lying weasel while he was at the White House. He writes a tell-all book, and suddenly he is a "good guy"??

He is a piece of shit.

I admire John Dean...but it took me years to get to that point. The same can be said of Arianna Huffington and David Brock. I will put the same ruler to Scotty. I have problems with the fact that his soul cleaning took so long and came out in a book rather than through other means. But let's see what happens here. In some ways I see this situation liberating Scotty...and he's open doors and started a debate that is long overdue. Let's see what he does from here. Will he use his new found celebrity to champion a truly free and open media (like Brock has) and walks the walk, I think we can say that he did have a transformation vs. a moment of clarity.

I'd like to give the guy the benefit of the doubt and the more I watch him, the more I want to believe he's sincere. Again...let's see what an 8 day wonder does on the 9th day.

...he commits to relief efforts in areas devastated by his war. See how completely he complies with subpoenas. Wait for him to do anything, in fact, beyond going on a book tour.

He's at least put his finger on the greatest crime perpetrated by his Administration, but what will he do about it? Will he apologize personally to the families of the dead, Iraqi, American and otherwise, or will he leave it as vague regrets over propagating disinformation?

...and agreeing to testify against Bush & Co. is completely worthless. He's still pushing the idea the Bush was "confused" or "misled".

Screw him.

He was an employee and his job was "repeat after me." Do you worry what kind of guy Baghdad Bob was?

McClellan's providing inside confirmation of the already established case for impeachment of a criminal regime, specifically for its Iraq deceptions, and all I want is him on a stand under oath in public, with the other perps in a row awaiting their turn.