McClellan Leaves White House Press Office

[bishop]

article

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove is giving up his policy portfolio and press secretary Scott McClellan is resigning, continuing a shakeup in President Bush's administration that has already yielded a new chief of staff. A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the president had not yet made the announcement, said Wednesday that Rove is giving up oversight of policy development to focus more on politics with the approach of the fall midterm elections. Just over a year ago, Rove was promoted to deputy chief of staff in charge of most White House policy coordination. That new portfolio came on top of his title as senior adviser and role of chief policy aide to Bush. But now, the job of deputy chief of staff for policy is being given to Joel Kaplan, now the White House's deputy budget director, said the official. The move signals a possibly broad effort to rearrange and reinvigorate Bush's staff by new chief of staff Joshua Bolten. Bolten moved into his position last week; Kaplan was his No. 2 person at the Office of Management and Budget. At least for the time being, the promotion of Kaplan would leave Bush with three deputy chiefs of staff: Rove, Kaplan and Joe Hagin, who oversees administrative matters, intelligence and other national security issues. Appearing with Bush on the South Lawn, McClellan, who has parried especially fiercely 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." McClellan was named press secretary in June 2003, not long after the United States invaded Iraq and had first been a deputy to Ari Fleischer in the job — a White House position with daily visibility rivaling virtually everyone there except the president. Ater the announcement, Bush and McClellan walked across the lawn together and boarded Marine One, but a problem with the helicopter's radio kept it grounded. The president and his staff were forced to take a motorcade to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., where Bush was scheduled to depart for Alabama.

[Scribbler1]

They don't seem to last too long in that position these days, do they? All the lies they must stick to when they probably know better must take their toll on a guy.

Don't take that to mean I'm defending him. There is no difference between the liar and the liar's front man whose sole job is to disseminate, and then defend the lies. He is, by virtue of his occupation (and probably personality) scum.

[bishop]

yeah, that has to be an exceedingly difficult job.. especially when you're up at the podium and reporters are pointing out all of your inconsistent statements, not to mention outright lies and flip-flops..

i never cared for him at all - he lacked any sort of personality and fervently stuck to bush's idiotic rhetorical points. from what i remember, at least ari used to give better explanations when he spoke, and he was somewhat personable.. seeing mclellan on the tube, on the other hand, was downright painful...


pretty interesting what rove's role in the upcoming elections will be - especially when republicans are running from the administration as if it had the plague.

this whole *shake up* thing seems to be way too late in the game imo. if bush wanted to save his presidency, he should've done it when he first started slipping in the polls. instead, he was his usual stubborn as a mule self and waited until he hit rock bottom before realizing that a little bit of change might be a good thing.

[PatrickHenry]

McClellan will be replaced with another talented liar...(shrug)

[Osborn F Enready]

McClellan enjoyed lying, right up to his last day at the mic.

H-A-R-Dcore NeoCon 1337!!!

So who is the next puppet?

[jose]

Dan Senor was an advisor to Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority director Paul Bremer until the nominal transfer of sovereignty. He also acted as the civilian spokesman at CPA press conferences in Baghdad, partnering with US military spokesman Mark Kimmitt.

Biography
Senor's official biography on the White House website gives a selective version of his curriculum vitae. He did his bachelor's degree jointly at the University of Western Ontario and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He then did a stint as a staffer for former Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI). Senor left Washington to do an MBA at Harvard Business School (1999-2001). During the initial (pre-May 1st 2003) phase of the Iraq war, Senor was Director of the Coalition Information Centre at CENTCOM HQ in Qatar.

The following elements of Senor's CV are not present in the version on the White House website:

In 1993 Senor did an internship [1] (http://www.aipac.org/documents/internship.html) at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobby organization which some regard as being affiliated to the Likud party. AIPAC's website quotes him as saying: "Whether I was learning the ins and outs of Washington with my fellow interns or attending briefings on Capitol Hill, my internship at AIPAC prepared me for my work in politics". His sister, Wendy Senor Singer, heads AIPAC's office in Jerusalem. His brother-in-law, Saul Singer, is the very right-wing opinion editor of the Jerusalem Post.
Senor is listed as a director (http://www.usibex.org/directors.cfm) on the website of USIBEX, the US-Israel Business Exchange. It describes him as a Senior Associate of the Carlyle Group. It is not clear from the website if this information is still current.
Senor worked for the Carlyle Group as a venture capitalist from 2001 to 2003. [2] (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/fea...2.whoswho.html) The Carlyle Group is a venture capital company specializing in defence and industry which has strong ties to the Bush family.
Before going to Baghdad, Senor was briefly deputy to White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Dan_Senor

[gr8fuldaniel]

These are really non-changes in the cabinet. Shoot the messenger and Demote the "Brain" (Rove) in one fell swoop, is the bush admins way of trying to show they are sterilizing the WH. But its all show and no go. Spokesliars are a dime a dozen.

Rove will still have security clearance and just be a bit more "Out of sight, Out of mind". But just as powerful. McClellen and Rove going in one fell swoop is a desperate attempt at a face-lift. The WH will still be an orgy of massacres and terror. McClellen is furniture and Rove is Bushs Brain in-cognito.

Need more cliches? I will check back.........

[gr8fuldaniel]

Quote by: Os So who is the next puppet?

If I had my choice and they are going to lie to us anyway....
I like 3 pathologigical liars:
Joe Isuzu

Martin Short, who played the sweaty, smoking lawyer, Nathan Thurm

and
Jon Lovitz
Thats it! That's the ticket...


Edit to add:

But, who can deny this would be the best man;
in the best interests of the country;

[rmnunez]

Is the McClellan resignation a sign the Bush administration is collapsing under the weight of its lies the spokesman could no longer handle, or is the man a mere functionary of relative insignificance to be replaced by another similarly endowed? More importantly, how long before the pre-publication announcement of his scandalous exposé damning his former boss?

[Milton Bradley]

Probably interesting to note that one ( I believe ) of the most credible journalists around was Nixon's Press Secretary at one time, Bill Moyers.

[Sonart]

.



Methinks this comes under the heading of 'Rearranging the deckchairs on the Titannic'. Who the spokesman is is irrelevent. Bring in Tom Selleck. Yeah, that'll work.



.

[Scribbler1]

McClellan repeats the lies given him. The liars are still there. The sheep will not realize this. Nothing will change.

[bishop]

heh, but in other news, i have to say that bush's defense of rumsfeld was pretty hilarious..

these people have zero political capital... it's a damn shame they still have lots of power - particularly to wage war... they even fuck up when they haven't done anything (re: katrina).


mcclellan looked like he was going to break down for a second.. would've been fabulous if he did.. heh, and then you have bush joking how he'll fondly look back on his glory days in a couple years. riiiiiight..

even though mcclellan was the nation's top liar, i don't remember ever watching a single one of his press conferences. i'd hear him speak for a few minutes, realize it was the same manufactured propaganda i can read online, and just flipped the channel. i'd bet that john kerry would make a more interesting press secretary, the droning fool that he is.

[Boetie]

There will come a time when one will no longer believe the drug addict's promise to quit the habit.

Bush Jr's administration is nothing more than drug addicts that will hurt this country in the name of that fix they need called power. Scott of course will have to live with the fact that he aided these addicts.

Maybe Scott and Bush Jr can tape a cardboard on their chest as a bullet proof vest and walk around Bhagdad alone with a cap gun, after all everything is all so hunky dory over there.

[Osborn F Enready]

Notice how U.S. stock markets rise when the Poppies come in season in Afghanistan.....

The U.S. socialist republic couldn't function without its crutch the "war on drugs", and the black market it provides, that the CIA keeps running, and keeps getting richer from.

[Scribbler1]

Quote by: Boetie There will come a time when one will no longer believe the drug addict's promise to quit the habit. Bush Jr's administration is nothing more than drug addicts that will hurt this country in the name of that fix they need called power. Scott of course will have to live with the fact that he aided these addicts. Maybe Scott and Bush Jr can tape a cardboard on their chest as a bullet proof vest and walk around Bhagdad alone with a cap gun, after all everything is all so hunky dory over there.

Scott comes from a wealthy Texas family. Scott doesn't give a fuck about this country.

[Osborn F Enready]

Daniel said: If I had my choice and they are going to lie to us anyway....

I say:
LOL

Lovitz..... yea, yea, that's the ticket.

[brien]

Quote by: bishop article

I think they ought to hire Rosey the Robot from the Jetsons. Or perhaps that Robot from "Lost in Space". He knew "Danger, Danger, Danger" when he realized it.