In Defense

So, Scott Mcelellan has gotten a pretty major bum rap over the past ten days for writing a memoir that, in places, directly contradicts the statements he made as press secretary. On the right the criticism has been that he is a transformed man, and that greed has driven him to write scurrilous things that he does not truly believe. On the left he is battered around for 'too little too late' why didn't he resign, or at least say something at the time? Couldn't it have made a significant impact, even changed the course of conduct he objected to?

I can't jump on either train entirely, because I believe that the process that brought him to write the book he did had to be painful. His is not a position I am unfamiliar with, I have genuinely admired someone, even had faith in them, only to be disappointed with decisions they made. The faith we have in the people closest to us means that we give them a buy on behavior that strangers would not tolerate. When you admire a person to the degree that Mcelellan admired Bush at one time, they get more than a buy, the get an actual pass. It is only later, on reflection that we realize what we tolerated, and for how long. We've all had a boyfriend or girlfriend, a mentor, a teacher, a boss who has let us down, not been everything we thought they were. It takes time to register that disappointment, time to realize that we gave them a buy or a pass that they didn't deserve. We then feel used or taken advantage of, it takes some time to do what Mcelellan has actually done in this book, and own it.

Everyone is an ethicist when it comes to politics, and because what goes on in the White House does affect so many lives, we all have a right to take Mcelellan's oversight and inaction personally. It is also important to remember that Mcelellan was doing his job, working for someone he believed in and admired, and he has more courage than the current and ex administration members that have continued to say and do nothing. Mcelellan has lost a lot of old friends by making this public assessment of his past, and he has not gained a lot of new ones in exchange. This isn't a huge cash book deal, he is actually doing the one thing that both sides beat him around for not doing earlier; he is being honest. It is time, now that the week + of sturm and drom has blown past, to realize his behavior is not an abomination, it is ours, it is human. To deny that would make us the real liars.