jiminy cricket showed up late

by Sandra Neish

Published: May 31, 2008

Scott McClellan. Ok, now that you all are paying attention, it is time to discuss a crisis of conscience, or lack of it. Whether or not you have read the book, agree that Bush lied, or disagree and think that W is the second coming, we can all agree that Scott McClellan could have saved the world a headache or three had he brought out a good deal of this information, oh, say, while all of these purported shenanigans were happening.

In my personal opinion, when one is a member of White House staff, one is not only employed by the current administration, but also the American people. Considering that the president is elected to do the people’s business and uphold and defend the Constitution and all of those other nice-sounding items in the Oath of Office, anyone and everyone operating in the Executive Branch is ultimately an employee of the United States of America. The good ol’ USA is where one’s initial loyalty should lie.

I guess Jiminy Cricket got lost on his way to Scott McClellan. He finally showed up in the form of a book publisher. Please do not misunderstand me; I do believe that coming forward with this type of information is a good thing. I believe that it is the only thing one can do when one is privy to unethical behavior of any kind. However, why didn’t he stand up and criticize the administration sooner?

As White House press secretary, if he knew that Bush was lying to the American people and he wanted no part of it, why didn’t he just quit? He could have looked Bush or Cheney or Rove in the face and said - like a man - “I want no part of this. You go out there and lie to the American people. I quit. I’m going on Larry King to tell the truth.” But he didn’t. He allowed the American people to be lied to and cheated out of the very information that would have put the current administration in check. Further, one could argue, that if he had come out with information regarding the Iraq war in 2003 when he became press secretary or even before that when he was deputy press secretary, Bush could have kissed his second, lame-duck term in office goodbye.

I know, it is far easier to armchair quarterback on Tuesday morning around the water cooler than to do the right thing if one were faced with McClellan’s situation. It is also easier to have a conscience when large quantities of money are being thrown at you. Coming clean is fantastic when you have a great book deal and most Americans are in a Bush-bashing mood. Shooting a lame duck is much easier than growing some man-parts and running onto national television to declaim against a sitting president. It seems that Mr. McClellan didn’t want to be this year’s Deep Throat. After all, it’s hard to garner as much money for your book if it is published decades later versus right in the thick of things. Imagine all the cold, hard cash he could have gotten for a tell-all after the aforementioned Larry King interview. People would have lined up around the block to get that book back in 2004. Maybe he couldn’t churn it out that quickly.

Let’s all learn from the example of what not to do. When you see something going on that should not go on, do your best to stop it. Don’t wait for a book deal to come clean when you can act and perhaps prevent something bad from happening. Wouldn’t you rather go down in history as the person who stood toe-to-toe with the president in order to save the country than as a one-off author who is lost to infamy and whom no one will really remember?

—

(email this article or post to social network)

—