McClellan, the first Bush insider to write a book criticizing his former boss and fellow Texan, drew instant condemnations on Wednesday from former White House colleagues who wondered why he stayed on the job.
"If he thinks he's going to ingratiate himself to his critics, he's sorely mistaken, and unfortunately, the only friends he had, he just lost," said Dan Bartlett, who served as White House counselor.
McClellan, in "What Happened -- Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," presents himself as a one-time true Bush believer who mistakenly fell in line behind "the campaign to sell the war" in Iraq.
McClellan, who had argued strenuously from the White House podium on why the war was justified, wrote that the decision to go to war in Iraq was a "fateful misstep."
"What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary," he said.
McClellan called Bush "a man of personal charm, wit, and enormous political skill," and "plenty smart enough to be president," while sprinkling criticism of him throughout the 341-page book.
Bush led a "carefully orchestrated campaign to shape and manipulate sources of public approval to our advantage" to get Americans behind the war."
Republished with permission FOCUS Information Agency
