By: E&P Staff In offering the first excerpts from the upcoming book, titled "What Happened," by former White House spokesman Scott McClellan, Politico.com got the early headlines (see other E&P stories) but other news outlets are now finding other revelations.
The Washington Post found this in the chapter on selling the Iraq war in the advance copy of the book: ?What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary.?
But the Post adds: "McClellan stops short of saying Bush purposely lied about his reasons for invading Iraq, writing that he and his subordinates were not 'employing out-and-out deception' to make their case for war in 2002."
The Post notes: "A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on the book, some contents of which were first disclosed by Politico.com. The Washington Post acquired a copy of the book Tuesday, in advance of its official release Monday."
Responding to a request for comment, McClellan wrote in an e-mail: ?Like many Americans, I am concerned about the poisonous atmosphere in Washington. I wanted to take readers inside the White House and provide them an open and honest look at how things went off course, and what can be learned from it. Hopefully in some small way it will contribute to changing Washington for the better and move us beyond the hyper-partisan environment that has permeated Washington over the past 15 years.?
According to the Post, Bush is depicted in the book "as an out-of-touch leader, operating in a political bubble who stubbornly refused to admit mistakes. McClellan defends the president?s intellect -- 'Bush is plenty smart enough to be president,' he writes -- but casts him as unwilling or unable to be reflective about his job."
More at: www.washingtonpost.com.
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