Bonuses, Suicide, Tits: Chuck Grassley Sums It Up.

Seems like Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

It all began on Monday when Sen. Grassley was steamed about AIG bonuses. He suggested that AIG executives should resign or “commit suicide.” Not surprisingly, he apologized the next day by claiming that he didn’t mean suicide literally. → source

So, how can Grassley redeem himself? Easy! He throws himself a press event and utters the following sentence: “From my standpoint, it’s irresponsible for corporations to give bonuses at this time when they’re sucking the tit of the taxpayer.”

One thing is not quite clear to me. Does the sucking tit part come before committing suicide or as a result of it?

Scott McClellan’s Book Is A Waste Of Time & Money

So I finally picked up and thumbed through Scott McClellan’s book “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception”. Of course, we all know that Scott McClellan is a former White House Press Secretary. I was fully prepared to be disappointed as I didn’t believe this book was worth reading. As it turns out, I was right!

Everyone knows that the job of White House Press Secretary can be best described by the 1997 movie title “the man who knew too little“. It is, for the most part, not the function of key cabinet members to keep the Press Secretary abreast of decision details or upcoming events. It is in fact the responsibility of the secretary to seek out specific cabinet members and ask targeted questions in an effort to gain sufficient insight that would enable him to respond to reporters’ questions.

As such, Karl Rove’s assertion that McClellan should have spoken up if he had concerns is a ridiculous one (see below for actual quote). Rove knows, as well as anyone and perhaps even better so, that Press Secretaries are not privy to detailed information. It is not unreasonable for Mr. McClellan to believe he was deceptively mislead during his tenure at the White House based on information available to him now. Just because you did not think to question Santa’s existence as a child doesn’t imply you are forever obligated to believe he’s real as an adult!

At the same time, however, the book does not produce any earth-shattering revelations. It asserts that the White House engaged in tactics that were not entirely genuine in nature. So what? That’s not news. Even some Republicans admit that much. And quite frankly, that’s not new to this White House either.

My guess is that Mr. McClellan decided to write a book to chronicle his years at the White House. He was unable to engage an interested publisher because the book lacked ‘wow’ factor and did not contain a ‘smoking gun’. It appears, at least to me, that he spiced up some of the stories and demonized some details in an effort to market his book. Many liberals, seeking any evidence against the Bush administration, rejoiced. The rest is history.

Save your money and time folks.

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In an interview on Fox News’ Hannity & Combs, Karl Rove said about McClellan: “if he had these moral qualms he should have spoken up about them. And frankly I don’t remember him speaking up about these things, I don’t remember a single word. There were people on the White House staff, colleagues of mine that had doubts about this or that policy, they spoke out.” (source)
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