Thursday, May 29, 2008

Wha' Happened?

So by now, we've all heard about former White House flak Scott McClellan's new book "What Happened." I found this nugget of particular interest (see Raw Story for the whole story):


The book recounts an evening in a hotel suite "somewhere in the Midwest." Bush was on the phone with a supporter and motioned for McClellan to have a seat. "'The media won't let go of these ridiculous cocaine rumors,' I heard Bush say. 'You know, the truth is I honestly don't remember whether I tried it or not. We had some pretty wild parties back in the day, and I just don't remember.'""I remember thinking to myself, How can that be?" McClellan wrote. "How can someone simply not remember whether or not they used an illegal substance like cocaine? It didn't make a lot of sense."Bush, according to McClellan, "isn't the kind of person to flat-out lie.""So I think he meant what he said in that conversation about cocaine. It's the first time when I felt I was witnessing Bush convincing himself to believe something that probably was not true, and that, deep down, he knew was not true," McClellan wrote. "And his reason for doing so is fairly obvious — political convenience."

Eventually, the Right will get tired of excoriating McClellan for his lack of loyalty. I wonder how they'll see this passage once the smoke clears. Will they judge George the same way they did Bill for his claims of "not inhaling", or will the message just die with the messenger? Either way, every time I hear or see the title of this book I think of Fred Willard's character "Mike Fontaine" from A Mighty Wind. I wish McClellan had titled his book "Wha' Happened" rather than "What Happened".

Oh, one more thing: as someone that went to school "somewhere in the Midwest", I'm a little offended that the best McClellan could offer as to the location of the conversation was simply "somewhere in the Midwest." Show the Midwest some love Scotty Boy! There's a big difference between Midland, Michigan and Manitowac, Wisconsin. I think.

Enjoy yourself some "Wha' Happened" below...



2 comments:

Sam Shyne said...

What's most interesting about this whole thing is that none of these Bushies actually contradict what he said. They just express sympathy for him, as if he were stricken with some incurable disease. "It's not the Scottie we know" "Why didn't say anything at the time?"

Sheesh. Is it January yet? Please?

Sam Shyne said...

Last night on Daily Show, John Stewart made the same joke about the book title. Flappy Days - the cutting edge of comedy.