Bolten '76 suggests McClellan book motivated by dismissal

White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten ’76, speaking on campus today, said that his dismissal of former press secretary Scott McClellan may have motivated McClellan’s new book, which harshly criticizes the Bush administration.

"It may be that I’m ultimately responsible for the bitterness and disgruntlement, and ultimately for the book,” said Bolten, who rarely speaks publicly. “But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”

“As much as I liked him and appreciated him,” Bolten explained, McClellan was replaced “in the interest of the institution and the presidency.”

Bolten delivered his remarks at a Reunions alumni-faculty panel today in Robertson Hall, where he also discussed the decision to change the responsibilities of famed political strategist Karl Rove and the resignations of other administration officials, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

McClellan’s book, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception,” is purported to offer the most caustic criticism of the administration to date from the perspective of a former member of Bush’s inner circle. It set Washington political pundits abuzz this week as excerpts and advance copies were widely quoted before the book’s release on Monday.

Bolten said he picked up McClellan’s book and “gave it the ‘Washington read,’ ” referring to the practice of “check[ing] the index for your own name,” which drew chuckles from the audience.

Recounting his dismissal of McClellan, Bolten said that the conversation between the two is reprinted in a detailed “a five-to-six page description” toward the end of the book. “Unlike, I’m told, the rest of the book, this was a pretty accurate description,” Bolten said.

He added that, judging from the deep detail in which McClellan recounted the conversation, he had likely been “planning for some time” to write the book. “Either that or he has an excellent memory,” Bolten said.

In his book, McClellan criticizes the administration on several fronts. He claims the White House misled the American public about the basis for the war in Iraq and the Valerie Plame affair, in which administration officials disclosed the identity of an undercover CIA operative.

McClellan resigned from his post as White House press secretary in April 2006, less than a month after Bush named Bolten as his chief of staff. At the time of Bolten’s appointment, it was widely reported that a reshuffling of White House staff would likely follow.

But McClellan told The Washington Post that his book was not written “to settle scores or enhance my own role but simply to record what I know and what I learned.”

Also, the Post reported at the time of McClellan’s resignation that though he had previously made no mention of leaving, he started to rethink his role when Andrew Card, Bolten’s predecessor, resigned as chief of staff. "I didn't need much encouragement to make this decision," he said in a Post article in April 2006.

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But McClellan's mother, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a former Texas Republican comptroller, told the Dallas Morning Sun on Thursday that McClellan had wanted to resign in 2005 but that Bush convinced him to stay on the job.

According to recent reports, McClellan claims in his book that Washington politicians have become excessively partisan and that the Bush administration was part of the problem.

At the panel discussion, Bolten conceded that partisanship has increased during the Bush administration, citing it as his biggest disappointment. “Those of us on the inside think it’s true, [but] the president is not to blame,” he said. “In personality and approach, [Bush] is very good at diffusing partisan politics … Some things are unavoidable.”

At a White House ceremony announcing his resignation, McClellan was effusive in his praise of Bush, choking up briefly. “Mr. President, it’s been an extraordinary honor and privilege to serve you for more than seven years now,” he said. “I've given it my all now, and I've given you my all.”

In a short reply, Bush said that McClellan “handled his assignment with class, integrity.”

But McClellan now admits that he may have made major misjudgments in his job as the mouthpiece of the White House.

“Like many Americans, I had qualms about how quickly we were rushing to war in Iraq,” he told readers of washingtonpost.com in a question-and-answer session today. “In the post-9/11 environment, I gave the president and his national security team the benefit of the doubt.”

“Upon reflection, I should not have.”