McClellan “disillusioned” with White House, pens book

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday on NBC's Today Show his disappointment with the Bush administration prompted his tell-all book and he doesn’t know if he’ll ever have a relationship with President Bush again.

In his first interview since the release of his controversial book, McClellan specifically singled out a discussion with Bush as part of a turning point in his tenure with the administration – the authorized leak of former CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name to reporters.

{mosads}McClellan recalled a moment during the Plame scandal when a reporter asked him if Bush had approved the declassifying of information and the leak.

McClellan later asked Bush the same question.

“Yeah, I did,” McClellan recalls Bush saying.

McClellan repeatedly said he was “disillusioned” by the continuous campaign culture in the White House.

Later in the interview, when asked if he and Bush will every have a relationship again, McClellan said, “I don’t know.”

McClellan reasserted that both former White House adviser Karl Rove and vice president Dick Cheney’s chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby lied to McClellan to insure that the press secretary did not have the full story when he went to reporters.

Though McClellan is harsh on Rove and Libby for their parts, he says “I am harder on no one than myself.”

McClellan said it was his fault for walking to the White House podium and putting forth information that he later learned was not true. “I blame myself,” McClellan said.

Many current and former White House officials have slammed McClellan for the charges.

Former White House counsel Dan Bartlett has called McClellan’s charges “total crap” and Rove has said McClellan “sounds like a left-wing blogger.” Meanwhile, current White House press secretary Dana Perino has said “this is not the Scott we knew.”

President Bush is said to be “disappointed” by the book.

“The White House would prefer I do not talk openly about my experience,” McClellan said.

But McClellan said he believes “it is important to look back and reflect on my experience,” in order “to hopefully change Washington for the better.”

McClellan said the White House “got caught up in playing the Washington game the way it is played today.”

When asked about the timing of his book corresponding with the presidential campaign, McClellan didn’t downplay the connection and said he hopes for a less partisan Washington.

The former press secretary said he still has "personal affection" for President Bush, but that he “doesn’t expect” to speak to the president “anytime soon.”