Did Bush Authorized the CIA Leak? According to Scott McClellan “Yes, He Did”

I don’t think anyone expected the blow back from former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s soon to be released set of memoirs, appropriately titled What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception”, too be as deep seeded, and severe as it is shaping up to be. Yesterday we saw an all out smear campaign launched against McClellan from the White House, which included attacks from Karl Rove, Ari Fleischer, Dana Perrino and Dan Bartlett which was clearly an attempt to de-legitimize and/or hurt McClellan’s creditability.

Earlier today McClellan had his turn to fire back, and during his appearance on NBC’s “The Today Show,” basically admitted that George W. Bush authorized the CIA leak, which subsequently ended with “Scooter” Libby in jail, and a whirlwind of speculation surrounding Dick Cheney and Karl Rove in regards to the extend of their involvement.

During this mornings interview with Meredeth Viera , McClellan revealed two crucial instances of action taken by the Bush Administration that did not sit well with him at all, or in layman’s terms, “pissed him off.” The first instance was the fact that he had been set up to lie at the direction of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. Followed by the second, which entailed him learning that George W. Bush himself had authorized the selective leaking of the National Intelligence Estimate.

Here is the transcript from this mornings interview which covers the specific admission that Bush himself had in fact knowingly authorized the CIA leak, which constitutes such an extreme case of endangering our national security that I am not even going to get into it right now, as well as video of McClellan’s appearance on this mornings “Today” show:

Scott McClellan: But the other defining moment was in early April 2006, when I learned that the President had secretly declassified the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq for the Vice President and Scooter Libby to anonymously disclose to reporters. And we had been out there talking about how seriously the President took the selective leaking of classified information. And here we were, learning that the President had authorized the very same thing we had criticized.

(Host) Viera: Did you talk to the President and say why are you doing this?

Scott McClellan: Actually, I did. I talked about the conversation we had. I walked onto Air Force One, it was right after an event we had, it was down in the south, I believe it was North Carolina. And I walk onto Air Force One and a reporter had yelled a question to the President trying to ask him a question about this revelation that had come out during the legal proceedings. The revelation was that it was the President who had authorized, or, enable Scooter Libby to go out there and talk about this information. And I told the President that that’s what the reporter was asking. He was saying that you, yourself, was the one that authorized the leaking of this information. And he said “yeah, I did.” And I was kinda taken aback.

This news is so big that it is actually difficult to get across what it really means in terms of the President, the Vice President, and the administration in general. If this is in fact true, and there is absolutely no reason to not believe Scott McClellan, seeing as though he worked hand in hand with these people for years, then we are seeing a first in presidential history. An instance where our commander and chief willingly endangered one of our own intelligence operatives.

Emptywheel over at FireDogLake.com is covering this story extensively and begins to outline what a tremendous amount of weight McClellan’s confession holds for the President, Scooter Libby, and more or less the American people as a whole:

At this point, Scottie McC is still accepting Scooter Libby’s lies, though I suspect he sees the dangerous frailty of them. With Bush’s clear admission to Scottie that he was in the loop, and the evidence that, subsequent to receiving an order from Cheney (authorized by Bush) to leak classified information to Judy Miller, Libby leaked Valerie Wilson’s identity, the circumstantial evidence shows the President was directly involved in the deliberate outing of a CIA spy. The only question now is whether Bush realized he authorized the leak of Valerie’s identity, in addition to a bunch of other classified documents.

Think of how much sense this makes. We have evidence that George Bush ordered Libby to respond to Joe Wilson on June 9, 2003. We now have Bush’s own confirmation that he authorized the leak Libby made to Judy Miller on July 8, 2003–which included the leak of Valerie Wilson’s identity. We know on July 10, Condi told Stephen Hadley that Bush “was comfortable” with the response the White House was making towards Wilson. And we know that–when Cheney forced Scottie McC to exonerate Libby publicly that fall, he did so by reminding people that “The Pres[ident] [asked Libby] to stick his head in the meat-grinder.” We know that Libby’s lawyers tried desperately to prevent a full discussion of the NIE lies to be presented at trial. And we know that–after those NIE lies did not come out, for the most part (though one juror told me that NIE story was obviously false, even with the limited information they received)–the President commuted Libby’s sentence on July 2, 2007.

I am willing to bet that McClellan indeed figured that he would cause some political waves, not to mention ruffle the feathers of the President and those who remain close to his side (Cheney, Rice, etc.) However I do not think that anyone could have fathomed what we are currently seeing unfold, and that is the total dismantling, from the inside out, of a President and his administration on the basis of not only negligible actions, but their clear cut breaking of the law.

Man, oh man. If you thought the White House was out to get McClellan before, wait to we see what they have in store for him now. Be prepared to watch as the White House attack dogs singlehandedly attempt to ruin a mans reputation (McClellan’s) by any means necessary. I suspect we will see FOX News lead the charge of anti-McClellan sentiment, and there is no doubt in my mind that it will get vicious on a personal, political, and professional level, with the likes of Karl Rove and company utilizing personal knowledge of McClellan, regardless of it’s relevance to the argument they are trying to make, or should say, the hole they are desperately trying to climb out of.

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