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Candidates on The Latest "Tell-All" Book

Candidates on The Latest "Tell-All" Book

Submitted by politicalWinters on Thu, 05/29/2008 - 8:38am.

  That would be the new book by former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, who pretty well ripped into the Bush administration.

  Anyway, here's what the three top presidential candidates had to say.

wjones

Press secretaries

Submitted by wjones on Thu, 05/29/2008 - 2:46pm.

As a journalist, it's frustrating to try to get the straight story out to readers when the person assigned to giving you information refuses to give the whole picture. McClellan said he was lied to about Rove and Libby's involvement with the Plame case, but on other issues he provides no good reason for his stinginess with the facts.

I've known more than a few press secretaries in my time, though not McClellan. My impression is that most would be uncomfortable lying but that they are usually so close to their bosses that they accept the boss' version of the truth and even tollerate a little shading of the truth here and there. The excepts of the book I've read so far suggest that McClellan was unquestioning when he worked for Bush right up until the time he lost his job.

Walter Jones is the director of Morris News Service and has been covering politics since 1998.

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