So long, Stonewall Scottie

April 19, 2006

It’s official.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Wednesday he is resigning, continuing a shakeup in President Bush’s administration that has already yielded a new chief of staff and could lead to a change in the Cabinet.

Appearing with Bush on the White House South Lawn just before the president boarded a helicopter at the start a trip to Alabama, McClellan, who has parried especially fiercefully with reporters on Iraq and on intelligence issues, told Bush: “I have given it my all sir and I have given you my all sir, and I will continue to do so as we transition to a new press secretary.”

Bush said McClellan had “a challenging assignment.”

“I thought he handled his assignment with class, integrity,” the president said. “It’s going to be hard to replace Scott, but nevertheless he made the decision and I accepted it. One of these days, he and I are going to be rocking in chairs in Texas and talking about the good old days.”

Yeah, won’t that be nice. Bush will say, “Remember that time you evaded all those questions about that criminal scandal?” And McClellan will say, “Which one, sir?”

McClellan’s announcement hardly comes as a surprise. McClellan has enjoyed few real allies anywhere outside the West Wing. The reporters don’t like him (he’s evasive and dishonest); Republicans don’t like him (he’s neither articulate nor persuasive); and Dems don’t like him (he routinely lies and attacks their patriotism).

Who’ll replace him? We don’t yet know for sure, but among the most likely candidates are senior WH aide Dan Bartlett, former Coalition Provisional Authority spokesperson Dan Senor, and as I noted earlier this morning, Fox News’ Tony Snow.

But don’t you think he will just be replaced by another orb-spinning, truth- evading bushista?

LOL on this line from the article: “Bush said McClellan had “a challenging assignment.””

Understatement of the half-decade! And guess who made Scottie’s “assignment” so “challenging”? Of course, the person who said it.

LOL, CB on your following comment: “Bush will say, “Remember that time you evaded all those questions about that criminal scandal?” And McClellan will say, “Which one, sir?”” Maybe not so funny as pathetic…

  • It’s going to be hard to replace Scott, but nevertheless he made the decision and I accepted it.

    I thought Bush was the DECIDER and not the accepter.

  • Excellent! Now, if we could just get Rove, Cheney, and Bush to join the resignation bandwagon, this would be a Perfect transition…

  • Isn’t it odd to have a person of this level resign without a replacement lined up? Maybe they just decided that press secretary was unnecessary. As noted, McClelland really did not provide any information to the press. Why not just do away with the job altogether. They can just release paper statements and let Fox News do the live PR. It would remove the stressful back and forth in the press room.

    Let’s not forget the other nugget this morning: “[…] Karl Rove is giving up oversight of policy development to focus more on campaign issues as midterm elections approach.” vai CNN.com.

  • “he made the decision and I accepted it”

    I’m confused… who’s the Decider?

    I guess the Decider gets to decide when to flex his mighty decision powers.

  • It will be fun to have a new press secretary and watch his creditability, honor and integrity melt away in the hot lights of media scrutiny and corrosive environment of administration corruption.

  • According to CNN online:

    In another move in an ongoing shakeup of the White House staff, longtime confidant and adviser Karl Rove is giving up oversight of policy development to focus more on politics with the approach of the fall midterm elections, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

    With Rove focusing on November 2006, the Democrats should get ready to play “whack-a-mole” with the Iraq war, the economy, and social issues.

    CB — I hope to follow-up on this topic.

  • Bush: “he handled his assignment with class, integrity”

    translation: “He lied like a rug and smeared all my opponents with gusto”

    Buh bye, Scottie, you sack of crap. Go rot in hell with Ari.

  • Maybe Scottie decided to resign after the mean ol’ press corps refused to apologize for calling the President a liar. I’m going to miss his sweaty, desperate demeanor. Worst Press Secretary Ever.

    “One of these days, he and I are going to be rocking in chairs in Texas and talking about the good old days.”

    As heartwarming as that is, it would be even more so if both were sharing a cell at one of the federal penitentiaries in Texas.

  • I, for one, will miss Scotty’s public wriggling and writhing–at least he got to the point of looking uncomfortable as he repeated his slogans and non-sequiters. And at least some in the press took umbrage at his jerking them around–it takes some perceived personal slight to get them going– and actually started to question him a tad more aggressively. The new liar will come in with a lot of exuberance, no doubt, and be some initially likable character that the press sloths will give a honeymoon period–perhaps lasting for the rest of the Bush pResidency, knowing their zeal for ferreting out the truth. Oh, Scotty, good times, good times…

  • “[…] Karl Rove is giving up oversight of policy development to focus more on campaign issues as midterm elections approach.” vai CNN.com.

    I suppose that means when they lose seats in November, Karl gets to fall on his sword, take one for the team, play the scapegoat, ‘spend more time with his family’, etc.

    One can hope.

  • Great news, CB! Now that he’s off the government payroll, he can collaborate with you on the McLellan-English Dictionary!

  • Sorry, Ron is no longer with us.

    Ronald Louis Ziegler (May 12, 1939 – February 10, 2003) was White House Press Secretary during United States President Richard Nixon’s administration, from 1969–1974, and Assistant to the President in 1974.

    He would have been so perfect.

  • Maybe simple Scottie’s mentor Baghdad Bob might be interested in the position.

  • Meet the new Chief of Staff, same as the old Chief of Staff.
    Meet the new head of OMB same as the old head of OMB.
    Meet the new press secretary, same as the old press secretary.

    Same song, different tune…..

  • One of these days, he and I are going to be rocking in chairs in Texas

    Hopefully, they will be chairs that plug-in and they will be sitting in them after the jury finds them guilty as charged.

  • Going to miss the Scottbot, too. Sure, he could be infuriating, but mostly just hysterical. That anyone could repeat that bullshit day after day (OK, even he had to take some breaks) with a straight face after a while was so absurd that it was no longer even worth a “fuck you, douche!”. My friends are probably tired of me sending them what I considered to be the funniest snippets from WH press briefings. As Frak said, good times…

    My fear is that the next automaton they trot out will actually be clever and not as funny as Scott. However, given semantics necessary to make any of what they say true, I suspect the next one will stick to the same gameplan.

  • doubtful — you’ve got it right there.

    You can imagine Bush’s thinking on this issue :”My ideas are all top-notch, so why am I so unpopular? Better get me some new sales guys!”

  • So Bush looks forward to reminiscing about the good old days.” I wonder whether those who lost loved ones on 9/11, or those who lost everything when Katrina hit, or the hundreds of thousands of those killed, horribly maimed, malnourished, or living in deprivation and terror in Iraq and Darfur, or everyone who’s lost their jobs or went bankrupt in this “strong” economy, or lost their essential medicines under the new Medicare prescription drug plan, or who have been tortured or imprisoned unjustly by our government, or who cherish our fundamental values and democratic system of checks and balances, would also consider the last five years “the good old days.” Only an ignorant, megalomaniac president without a single atom of empathy in his body would say such a thing.

  • Sitting on rockers with Scottie in Texas would be a good thing, given that GWB has been off his rocker for several years.

  • Well said, In/Sanity. I think we have more than enough evidence to concluder that Bush has not a single atom of empathy in his body.

    Sounds like Bush is going to be spending a lot of time sitting around after 2008. He’s gonna sit around and reminisce with Scottie, and then he promised Trent Lott they’d hang out on the porch of Lott’s fabulous new home in Mississippi…I can only hope Gridlock’s right and the chairs are juiced.

    I, for one, will miss Scottie’s sweaty upper lip and shiny forehead. It’s the end of an era.

  • I’ll miss Scott McClellan*. You could see storms of cognitive dissonance behind his eyes as he struggled to resolve the day’s talking points with reality. Compare him with Ari Fleischer, who must have had the You-Can’t-Say-This-It’s-A-Lie part of his brain surgically removed. Now he’s somebody I don’t miss.

    * As a resident of Texas, where McClellan’s mother is running for governor, I’m sure I’ll miss him less than I’d like to.

  • Scott McClellan had a difficult job but did it well–avoiding answering any legitimate questions from the media that would embarass the president if he told the truth when the current administration has a good reason to be so secretive.

  • Let’s give Scott at least a little benefit of the doubt. You have got to be tough as nails to face the pirhanas of the press. Do that long enough, and anyone will get sour and cynical. Talk about scandal in an administration, remember that sweet Monica spent time “doin Bill” in the Oval Office. He “NEVER had sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

  • Scott McClellan was the ideal face of the Bush Administration. He accurately reflected their fundamental disregard for the truth and desire to manipulate public opinion through trickery and obfuscation. He carried out his duties in a bumbling, inarticulate, inconsistent, repetitive, and generally incoherent manner that was a perfect imitation of what Bush himself would do if he had the courage to face the press.

  • Why is Karl Rove still drawing a salery that we, the people are paying for with our taxes when he is no longer an employee of the government but an employee of the Republican party?

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