The big story of the day is former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s new book blasting the Bush administration, but first, a personal announcement.

When I logged on to the blog control panel, the dashboard was nice enough to inform me I have 400 entries on this blog, and this makes number 401!  Not a huge milestone given that there’s other bloggers who spend whole days doing this kind of thing, but I’m happy with it.

Now on to McClellan.  The reaction to his book, which accuses the administration, among other things, of propagandizing and lying to the American people about the war, has provoked some surprising and not-so-surprising comments.

Joe Gandelman over at TMV says it as good as I can:

The White House has now responded to former White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s memoir that’s critical of President George Bush, the White House, Karl Rove — and the news media — by using the typical phrase employers use to try and discredit employees who step foward with complaints: he’s a disguntled employee.

In addition to disgruntled, some are using the “those are left-wing arguments” on him, such as the master of spin himself, Karl Rove.

I sent an email to Andrew Sullivan earlier on a post he made linking to a National Review Article that calls McClellan a Hamas apologist.  Though I’m actually no longer sure why I responded to that specifically, since my comment was more general, I expressed why I thought most Bush administration appointees wait until after they leave to say anything bad about the administration:

I think the article underlines to a great extent why we only hear former Bush loyalists tell how they really feel after they’ve left the administration, and it’s something I think most people already know.  If you’re not following the administration line to the T, you’re a liability.  Just look at Colin Powell’s tenure as Secretary of State, fraught with battles against other departments.  Now look at how that turned out for Powell.  Under those circumstances, it’s not unreasonable that McClellan would keep his mouth shut.  He was afraid of losing his job!

I think we’re going to see more Scott McClellans after the end of the Bush administration.  Top administration officials will be ready to prepare their own memoirs, and the truth will come out about how these past eight years have been on the inside.  I think a lot of people already know a lot of the words that are coming to a memoir near you: secretive, inept, unorganized, unprepared, propoganda, and several more choice colorful words.