Scott McClellan

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Scott McClellan resigned April 19, 2006, as President George W. Bush's White House Press Secretary "in an escalation of a Bush administration shake-up driven by Republican anxieties," Terence Hunt reported for the Associated Press.

In late May, 2008, news articles reported on Scott McClellan's memoir titled What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception in which he writes that President Bush sold the Iraq war to Americans using a sophisticated "political propaganda campaign" aimed at "manipulating sources of public opinion" and "downplaying the major reason for going to war." McClellan, known during his time as press secretary as a staunch defender of Bush Administration policies and the war in Iraq, writes that Bush aides "had outlined a strategy for carefully orchestrating the coming campaign to aggressively sell the [Iraq] war ... it was all about manipulating sources of opinion to the president's advantage ..." McLellan also admits that he allowed himself to be deceived about the exposure of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and suggests that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby may have worked behind the scenes to coordinate their stories about the Plame leak. [1]. On May 30, 2008, McClellan responded to attacks upon his book from current and former members of the Bush Administration. [2]

Background

McClellan replaced Ari Fleischer as White House Press Secretary in July 2003. [3] His own replacement, announced by the White House on April 26, 2006, was Fox News talk show host Tony Snow.

McClellan served previously as Deputy Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy Press Secretary. "Before joining the White House staff, he was the traveling press secretary for the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign. Scott began working for Governor Bush in early 1999 as deputy communications director. Prior to joining the Governor's office, he served as chief of staff to a Texas state senator, worked on grassroots outreach for lawsuit reform in Texas and managed three successful statewide campaigns. Scott is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin," a biographical note states.[4] [5]

In September 1999, the Austin Chronicle noted that in 1998 McClellan had run the campaign of his mother, [Texas] Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander before moving to the press office of Governor George W. Bush. "Then, a few months ago, he left Bush's press office to work for the governor's presidential campaign." [6]

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