From my posting today at thenextright.com:

As a former political appointee myself - I understand the frustration, pain, and anger that Scott McClellan undoubtedly felt (and probably still feels) after the “hangover” of getting out. You lament the opportunities missed, the things you messed up, and the things you wished you could have gotten right. The first inclination is often to write something…

I’m not a big Bible quoter, but I’ve found this particular passage to be instructive as a political appointee - Psalm 146:3, “Put not your faith in rulers, or in the son of man, in whom there is no salvation.” Another passage, from LBJ, I also have found instructive, “You have to dance with the one that brung ya.”

The bottom line is - you are always responsible for your own career - you can’t put your entire hope and faith in others to fufill your career goals… but you also have to realize as a political you have a loyalty and fidelty to both the President and the party, and in order for that to work - candor has to go both ways…. your superiors to you… and you with your superiors.

McClellan’s “tell all” book, in which he accuses the President of misleading America, of Scooter and Rove engaging in felonies (conspiracy to obstruct justice), and essentially claims, “I’m mad because the President lied to me!” breaks all of those rules. He stabs the President in the back - claims he was the sole voice of reason and doubt - and makes incredulous claims about his coworkers, the White House Staff, and meetings which he never attended.

The most amusing for me was that Rice was too defferential to Rumsfeld and Cheney. I can tell you from my own personal experiences - Rice was not “too defferential” and did not just “roll over” on issues but, you have to recongize that as a Presidential adviser, there are limits to what she can do when arguing with a Cabinet official and the Vice President….

… but that stuff isn’t in Scott’s book. Some perspective about how things work - the context in which people operated - the realities of what you can change and what you can’t - none of that is in the book at all. It’s all - Look at me! I know what really happened! I’ll tell you the real inside story!

Now comes this prisoner of conscience and he has decided - forget everyone else - forget the President - forget the party - it’s all about me. For him to do this now strikes me as self-serving, disingenuous and unprofessional. If he truly believed what he says now, then he had an obligation to voice those opinions to his superiors - including the President. If he felt he was truly misleading the American people, he had an obligation as a pulbic servant - to protect and defend the Constitution - to make those objections known or to resign. Where is that laser like focus on his own behavior - beyond saying, perhaps, he realizes now he was mislead. If what you say is true, you weren’t mislead - you just didn’t care. Everything was fine and dandy while you were in the White House and drinking from the trough of power. Now that the good times are over and the hangover is left - you’ve all of a sudden decided maybe the party wasn’t worth it after all…

Is Scott a sellout - I don’t know… I suspect not. A sell out is someone who knows what they’re doing is wrong and does it for the money anyways. I don’t get that impression here. Scott is mad and wants revenge against the President for “misleading him.”

You were one of the inner circle of the President’s advisors. You had an obligation to provide the President your best advice….

… the most appicable lesson here - for Scott - is yet another LBJ quote, “You can’t go to a whore house and then claim you didn’t feel loved.”

I have been amazed, however, at the long line of Bush appointtees who soon after leaving service either engage in ridiculous history rewriting (Doug Feith) or engage in ”memoir writing” with an agenda of undermining the President (McClellan, O’Neil, Clarke, Bremmer, etc.) Don’t any of you feel an obligation to keep the confidence of the politicals whom you served? I mean - at least until they’re out of office? Can you honestly tell me that this type of naval gazing before the President leaves office is helpful? Does it ultimately serve the interest of the American people.

Grow up. Write your tell all book after the President leaves office so there can be an honest discussion and lessons learned about the Presidency without undermining the guy who’s currently in office…. you only had to wait six more months for cryin out loud…

But remember - it’s all about Scott. Scot was lied to. Scott feels pain. Scott put his faith in princes and paid the price…