Damage Control All Over Again

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For Richard A. Clarke, the former Bush administration security advisor whose tell-all book was denounced as a betrayal four years ago, the current White House attacks on former press secretary Scott McClellan are reminiscent of what he went through. "It's like an echo chamber," he told Comedy Central's The Daily Show. Ironically, the themes being voiced against McClellan are the same points that McClellan himself raised against Clarke in 2004. "I turned on the TV the other day and there were White House people saying he is a disgruntled ex-employee, that he is out of the loop," Clarke said. "I think there is a little box in the White House that says, 'If anybody escapes from the White House and tells the truth, break this box and take out these talking points...say he is a disgruntled employee, say it is an election year and he is trying to sell books.'" McClellan's public reversal is not winning him much slack from critics of the war. Jeff Cohen writes that McClellan may have "blood on his hands -- and that he hasn't earned any kind of redemption" but adds that he is "trying my best to enjoy this falling out among thieves and liars." McClatchy correspondents Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay write that they "find it a wee bit preposterous -- and we are being diplomatic here -- that a man who slavishly - no, robotically! -- defended President Bush's policies in Iraq and elsewhere is trying to 'set the record straight' (and sell a few books) five years and more after the invasion, with U.S. troops still bravely fighting and dying to stabilize that country."