What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception

This is an incredibly frank account of the inner workings of the Bush Whitehouse. This is not from some anti-Bush liberal but a member of the inner circle. Scott McClellan was a loyal "Bushie" from almost the beginning in Texas. His account of systematic deceit which he calls (but did not coin) "the permanent campaign" is telling and alarming.
The book is not a "settle the score" account from a disgruntled employee. In fact, McClellan spends a lot of time defending Bush as a person, his policies and many of his actions. He does not, however, pull any punches when it comes to the activities of coordinated spin, misrepresentations, and out-right lies to the American people, which he was a participant in. Lies which, among other things, landed the US in a costly and unnecessary war in Iraq.
McClellan explains the actual rational the President had for war (and it had little to do with terror or WMDs or anything Bush sold to the American people).
I believe this book will be the definitive answer to many of the questions future historians have about "What Happened" during this disastrous time in our history.
Everyone who cares about America should read this book.

This essence of this book was covered brilliantly by Frank Rich in "The Greatest Story Ever Sold" - early on in this book McClellan talks of how he witnessed hazing in his college fraternity (and by witnessing it condoned this behavior until the authorities blew the whistle). THEN he came clean!

Since he spends a lot of time talking of himself he points out other incidents where he is in a position to effect change and just stands by - naivete? or clueless? or just blindsided by events.

Now comes his being on the scene for all Valerie Plame scandal, the entry of the US into the war on Iraq and other major gaffes of this administration - for many years he has known and worked with W - once again he stands by the wayside as these horrifying events occur and says nothing, until someone else blows the whistle - the result? This poorly crafted book. Future readers won't be able to know what the heck is going on in his book as there is little context and serious omissions.

There are other books that tell the story much better - I paid the Kindle price but it was not worth even that!

More lying liars and the lying lies they tell. Only wish there were a way to give zero stars; I've already expended too much energy on this garbage.

What Happened ---- nothing new!

I have followed public affairs and political matters since my youth, which is well behind me. I read memoirs of public officials and commentary by keen and recognized observers. I voted for President Bush and would do so again given what I saw and see in his opponents. I take this position while fully recognizing the many, many lapses in competence that President Bush has displayed. Hence, the desire to gain insight form someone who was up close and personal was strong.

However, virtually nothing in Mr. McClellan's book added to the body of knowledge all ready in the public domain. Rather Mr. McClellan delivered a repetitious regurgitation of his own concept as to how a president should govern. It comes across as an unedited plaint with not an original thought or insight to offer.

Looking at the illustrations in the book, including the cover, one frequently can read vexation in the presidents face as he cornered by Mr. McClellan almost as if the president is thinking how can I escape this pest!

After reading the book I can understand his apparent frustration.

What is clear is that Mr. McClellan never understood what the ultimate fate was for virtually all press secretary's, or front men for those of a certain level of power in every walk of life. He actually thought he was a "player" and he never was and from his presentation never will be.

In the end I found the book sad and non-informative.

Scott McClellan was part of the Bush White House from day one, and was the president's Press Secretary between 2003 and 2006. In this book he reveals much of the deception practiced there, focusing on two issues, the "sale" of the war in Iraq on false premises and the deliberate outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

But McClellan is a Texas Republican and believes in George W Bush, so you have to take much of what he says with a pitch of salt. Even if he is more critical than any previous Bush insider, he still plays down the faults. In the background there is a sense of "the Democrats did this stuff too, we just failed in our attempt to be better than them".

Not everyone would agree with that opinion.

On the war, McClellan claims Bush had a dream from the beginning of overthrowing Saddam to create a domino wave of democracy spreading through the Middle East. But instead of presenting that vision to the American people Bush and his people chose instead to use Weapons of Mass Destruction as an excuse for war. Since there were no WMD, the later change to the democracy issue looked like a bait and switch, which McClellan claims, could have been avoided had Bush been more honest about his motives from the beginning.

While McClellan claims Bush wanted to work through the United Nations, there isn't a single mention in this book of the UN arms inspectors under Hans Blix, who wanted to keep working, but were stopped by the American invasion of Iraq. Obviously had they been given that chance, the proven lack of WMD would have made going to war much harder.

McClellan goes into great detail on the Plame affair, in which he twice told the Washington press corps that specific top officials had assured him they not leaked the name of the CIA agent. He describes how both the Vice President's chief of staff Scooter Libby and Bush's top aid Karl Rove out and out lied to him. McClellan is at his strongest here, and his story is very credible. What he leaves unclear is how much Dick Cheney or George Bush were behind the illegal exposure of an agent. But there are slight hints (very slight) that both, especially Cheney, were somehow involved.

What isn't in this book is any description of the Bush administration's war on civil liberties. Abu Ghraib is mentioned (and deplored) only once in passing, and the word "Guantanamo" is conspicuous by its absence. It's hard to believe the White House Press Secretary didn't have to deal with these issues during a five year tenure, and while McClellan comes across as a decent person with strong ethics, this omission is curious.

But this is probably as critical an insider's view of the Bush White House and its abuses as we are ever going to get.