Scott McClellan to Obama: 'Please Don't Probe Me'

Posted by Jill C., Brilliant at Breakfast at 7:34 AM on August 21, 2008.

No, I am not kidding: Scott McClellan warns Obama that he'd better not plan ANY investigations of Bush Administration crimes:

Scott McClellan advises Obama, in an interview with my colleague Daniel Libit, not to investigate the Bush administration — because it would, McClellan says, damage Obama's image. (Not that former Bushies have anything at stake in that choice.)

That's a sleeper of an issue that, if Obama's elected, could blow up into a major one in unexpected ways, as some foreign governments suggest they'd arrest top Bush administration officials on torture charges.

[W]hen asked what advice he would give to a President Barack Obama or Democratic Congress on the matter of handling former Bush officials, McClellan speaks now of the perils of probing the past.

“If Obama were to win,” he said last week, “that would be an issue his administration would have to face early ... because he’s pledging to be a uniter, not a divider — without saying those exact words we campaigned on in 2000. He’s pledging to change the way Washington works, and if Congress were to pursue that, it would be very divisive.”

He continued: “That could be very problematic for his presidency right off the start.”

So you see, Senator -- in Republicanland, being a "uniter" means "letting Republicans get away with crimes."

In Republicanland, "Changing the way Washington works" doesn't refer to governing for the people instead of for campaign contributors, it means closing your eyes to the misdeeds and crimes of those who came before you. In other words, Scott McClellan just used your own words to call you a p*ssy. Are you going to just take it? And if you're inclined to do so, ask yourself this: If the crimes committed by the Bush Administration -- ignoring warnings that our country was about to be attacked, taking us to war based on lies, hiring companies in which the Vice President has financial interest in no-bid contracts to privatize the military, turning over military activities o private contractors, actively participating in the mortgage mess in a systematic move to eliminate the middle class -- were committed by a Democrat, do you think for one minute that Republicans would hesitate to investigate?

Senator, the high road doesn't work. The low road does. Take a look at your poll numbers. Too many Americans are willfully ignorant. You can't change that. You can't make them use their intellectual brain instead of the reptilian one. So whether you like it or not, you are going to have to get your nice suit dirty and mud-wrestle these guys. Scott, Bush Administration, Crime

Tagged as: crime, bush administration, scott

Jill Hussein C. blogs at Brilliant at Breakfast.