Scotty on the emperor with no clothes

The Bush tell-all book extravaganza is under way, as Scotty McClellan, ex-shill ex-press secretary for Dear Leader, says in his new book, among other things, that -- gasp -- Bush used propaganda/lied to gain public support for the Iraq invasion! (via Raw Story):

* Bush and his aides "confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war";

* Some of McClellan's assertions before the White House press corps were, in retrospect, "badly misguided";

* Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby "had at best misled" McClellan about their roles in the notorious CIA leak case, even as McClellan publicly defended them;

* The White House was in a "state of denial" during the first week after the Hurricane Katrina disaster;

* Bush was "steamed" about his top economic adviser telling The Wall Street Journal that a possible Iraq war could cost as much as $200 billion. "He shouldn't be talking about that," said Bush, according to McClellan.

As you can see, there's a fair amount of posterior covering on Scotty's part. He just wasn't in the loop. Ironically, Scotty thought the press was too easy on him and should have pushed for more answers. Well, we all know how that goes -- the MSM was so worried about losing access to WH sources that they rolled over and played dead most of the time. About the only time they showed any balls was when it was clear Rove was a big fat liar about the Plame case.

UPDATE: Love this...Karl Rove starts the McClellan smear campaign, saying that the quotes he read "sound like a left wing blogger," not the Scott McClellan he knows.

Related:

* Pam's McClellan files.