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Citizen Voices is a blog about election politics, written by people like you. Six San Diegans give their personal take on the issues, candidates and propositions.
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A Changed Man?
Why is it always easier to come clean when it is after the fact? Scott McClellan's belated "revelations" about the Bush White House leave a bad taste in my mouth.
No kidding....propaganda...who knew? One only has to look back at press room videos from 2003-2006 and witness the deconstruction of McClellan to know that he knew he was lying nearly every time he opened his mouth. Before our very eyes he was transformed from UT frat boy who had landed himself a good job with a bunch of Texas Fat Cats, ("living the dream"), to a puffy bleary eyed robot who had sold his soul to the devil.
OK, there ARE second chances in life...he's still young...and hey, look at Oliver North. He got his own TV show! But what if ...just what if... back in 2003 when he was still ridiculing Helen Thomas, or Richard Clarke, or when he added to the misery of the Valerie Plame ordeal... what if he had just let go of the façade, looked out over the press corps and said, "I can't do this any more... Bush, get yourself another stooge."
Perhaps that would have been a tipping point and more "insiders" would have come forward. The same could have been said for Colin Powell, whose lifetime of honorable service will not save him from allowing himself to be used as a pawn.
By chance, as I am writing this, the anchors of the three major networks are on Good Morning America promoting a Stand Up to Cancer Campaign.
When the show's co-anchor asked them how they felt about McClellan's accusation that the press was remiss in asking the right questions before the invasion of Iraq, they each described an atmosphere of repression where they "got in trouble" if they asked questions critical of Bush's White House.
This is infuriating because there were plenty of people asking the right questions, while the weapons inspectors begged for more time. But the networks followed the White House edict and generally portrayed these people as "aiding and abetting" so here we are five years, two months and eleven days later, and the world is a pretty sorry place.
McClellan's book might be admirable if it weren't so apparently self-serving, and I hate that he will make money on it. I thought maybe he wrote the book because he was out of a job, but a search of the Internet shows his current place of employment to be HardhatbidInc. HHD seems to have experienced exponential growth in the last five years, adding clients throughout the Middle East and Africa.
And what's this? Why it seems that one of their partners is the Al Janabi Group. Well, I guess we should all be used to the smell of war profiteering by now, but gosh Scott, it does give one pause.
-Citizen Voices blogger Candace Suerstedt is a filmmaker and a mother of three who lives in Coronado.
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I couldn’t agree with you more. I am outraged that the madness of the Bush administration has gone unchecked for so long, and now this . Maybe Scotty-boy is worried that one or more of those rumored war-crimes indictments might have his name on it.
While it is true that Scott McClelland is simply confirming what many of us
have known for years, the gift to me is the possibility that Scott will be the next John Dean, who will illuminate the many crimes of the Bush Whitehouse and finally put “justice” back into the judiciary.
It is pretty sad to hear his late admissions of a crisis in conscience (if it’s genuine to begin with.) Like Scott Allen said, hopefully McLellan will continue playing a role in revealing secrets the Bush crime family has kept away from the public. I also personally am enjoying hearing the sounds of Rove and Fleischer feeling ‘betrayed’ or ‘confused’ b/c McClellan was one of their own. I love it because the sound of Americans’ voices telling the administration again & again that their policies were rotten didn’t seem to matter one bit. Maybe it will take “one of the family” to get thru to these thugs.
It is a shame that so many ex-members of this regime; as well as members of The Congress, the media, and the population as a whole allowed this president to do so much to destroy this country over the past 7 and one-half years. The country’s backbone turned to jello in the face of this psyhcophant.
Scandal after scandal, wars, incompetence, lies, a wrecked economy, a badly weakened nation are the legacy of the man in the presidency right now.
I completed my “comments” a few minutes ago, but lost it somewhere when I tried to send it. Here it is again in essence. Tonight I am watching all the great news come in about our wonderful election. And like millions of my fellow Americans, I am proud to be One. So, here is my specific concern.
For the first time in the history of this the greatest of countries, an African American will lead a political party in the nomination process for the Presidency of this wonderful country. But by watching all the reporters and commentators, one would never know that there are African Americans in this town; or that there are African American reporters in this city. They are all white and “other.” Why are there no Black Anchors or reporters shown?
This should not be. We should change this. I shall contact THESE DAYS also later this week, I hope, about this concern also. Your ideas about this? Let me know. Thanks, Carrol
I couldn’t agree more, Carrol. “White and other” is a succinct
way to put it. It does seem that African Americans are underrepresented in the Visual media in San Diego. Of course one of the best voices in radio is an African American and can be heard
daily on KPBS.
But your point is important-Obama should not have to run the gauntlet of latent racism every time he opens his mouth. He has more important things to do, these days.