The Dishonorable Path
Former Senator Bob Dole has admitted to e-mailing Scott McClellan on the subject of McClellan's critical new book about his time in the Bush Administration. I must admit, Dole seems to have a real point:
"There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues." "No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits, and spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique."
I have no doubt that Scott McClellan's views are authentically his own. As I pointed out in this space last week, McClellan's book will likely spur a long-overdue discussion among conservatives about what went wrong with this Administration. Dole is quite right, however, in pointing out the less-than-honorable way McClellan has behaved-and it does reek of cheap profiteering.
How can I say that? I know for my own part that (hypothetically) if I were asked to take a job in the Bush Administration tomorrow, loyal Republican though I have always been, I could not do so with a clear conscience. The Administration has engaged in too many policy decisions that I believe are antithetical to conservatism itself. If Scott McClellan had a real problem with what was happening inside the White House, he needed to confront his superiors directly. If he wasn't satisfied with the answer he got from such an exchange, he should have resigned straightaway and then told his story. Instead, we hear not a word from McClellan until now.
Scott McClellan comes from an old Texas political family, so I doubt that his life or career would have been destroyed had he resigned his White House post quite some time ago and began to speak out. The idea that he would have been isolated is rather silly, as we can see by the press attention he is getting since the details of his book were made public.
The honorable thing for him to do was to have resigned and told the world why.
Labels: Conservatism, Presidential Election, Republican Party
posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 9:00 AM
1 Comments:
Interesting. I have oftened wondered what I would do if some windfall or opening in something grand would be offered to me. What would I do if it clashed with my ideals, ethics, etc. I owuld like to think I would not cash in for cheap notoriety or money. I guess to really know the answer, I would have to be made an offer.
I have always respected Bob. If any pol could be considerd a straight shooter, he was one I would think of. This email thing to Scott bears some looking into.
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