NOW He tells Us?

A number of Bush administration officials have already written books highly critical of Dubya's presidency. One that is yet to come out, but has been highly anticipated, is the one from former press secretary Scott McClellan.

The wait is just about over. McClellan's What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception is coming out next week, and excerpts are beginning to become public. And the former White House spokesman is pulling no punches. Among his observations:

• Bush relied on "propaganda" to sell the war.
• The White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.
• An admission that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be "badly misguided."
• After Hurricane Katrina, the White House "spent most of the first week in a state of denial."

Expanding further on Katrina, McClellan writes,

"One of the worst disasters in our nation's history became one of the biggest disasters in Bush's presidency. Katrina and the botched federal response to it would largely come to define Bush's second term. And the perception of this catastrophe was made worse by previous decisions President Bush had made, including, first and foremost, the failure to be open and forthright on Iraq and rushing to war with inadequate planning and preparation for its aftermath."

McClellan spent almost three years as press secretary and left the White House two years ago. At the risk of sounding ungrateful, it's taken him this long to figure this crap out? Isn't it kind of late? There are only 238 days left in Bush's presidency, and these revelations do no good at this point. The damage has been done.

It remains to be seen if Colin Powell will write a book. Assuming he does, he--even more than McClellan--will have to address the issue of why he didn't speak up sooner. More than any other individual, Powell had the stature and credibility to put a stop to the Iraq war before it ever started. All he would have had to do is voice his doubts. But he didn't, and Bush was able to go forward with the Iraq fiasco.

And now, more than five years later, over 4,000 American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead.... All because people like Powell and McClellan remained silent.