Cowardly Scott McClellan Retracts Allegation about Bush

Right now the recommended list features several diaries regarding an alleged excerpt of former White House spokesperson Scott McClellan's forthcoming book. From that excerpt, it appeared that McClellan was alleging Bush knew his staff had outed CIA agent Valerie Plame and had lied about it:

Amid a swelling controversy about the leak of Valerie Wilson's name, McClellan went to the White House podium in October 2003 and told reporters that Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, had not been involved. . .

There was one problem. It was not true," McClellan writes in his new book, "What Happened," which is to be released in April. "I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff and the president himself."

Explosive stuff, huh? Sure is.

Too bad McClellan is nothing more than a coward engaging in a cheap PR stunt. He has now disavowed that Bush knew about the outing.

From MSN (h/t TPM):

WASHINGTON - Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan does not believe President Bush lied to him about the role of White House aides I. Lewis Scooter Libby or Karl Rove in the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, according to McClellan's publisher.

Peter Osnos, the founder and editor-in-chief of Public Affairs Books, which is publishing McClellan's book in April, tells NBC from his Connecticut home that McCLellan, "Did not intend to suggest Bush lied to him."

Come on, we all had to know this was coming, right? And let's face it. McClellan has always been a liar. He has always been a loyal Bushie. The only explanation I find plausible is that this was a deliberate PR stunt.

Fuckers.

Update [2007-11-21 16:24:46 by taylormattd]:
I'll include one more excerpt from the article, which to me demonstrates this was little more than a PR campaign, and that McClellan was never really planning to implicate Bush:

Osnos says the quotes which appeared on the Public Affairs Books website were part of the roll out of the book catalogues for the spring printings. And he says McClellan had not finished the manuscript for the memoir yet and was working under deadline to have the book completed for the April publishing.