WASHINGTON - Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan does not believe President Bush lied to him about the role of White House aides I. Lewis Scooter Libby or Karl Rove in the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity, according to McClellan’s publisher.

Peter Osnos, the founder and editor-in-chief of Public Affairs Books, which is publishing McClellan’s book in April, tells NBC from his Connecticut home that McClellan, “Did not intend to suggest Bush lied to him.”

Osnos says when McClellan went before the White House press corps in 2003 to publicly exonerate Libby and Rove, the problem was that his statement was not true. Osnos said the president told McClellan what “he thought to be the case.” But, he says, McClellan believes, “the president didn’t know it was not true.”

Osnos says the quotes which appeared on the Public Affairs Books website were part of the roll out of the book catalogues for the spring printings. And he says McClellan had not finished the manuscript for the memoir yet and was working under deadline to have the book completed for the April publishing.

Full Story Here:
Publisher: McClellan doesn’t believe Bush lied

I knew the spin cycle would start up pretty fast but I didn’t see this coming, the publisher doing the spinning, I honestly figured it would be the White House that hit the spin button…

If McClellan didn’t say what he meant to say, then why did he open his mouth and say anything to begin with??

McClellan said, and I posted it yesterday HERE:

“There was one problem. It was not true,” McClellan writes, according to a brief excerpt released Tuesday. “I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president’s chief of staff and the president himself.”

You can’t be much more specific in your statement than this one made by McClellan himself but, according to the publisher, the president told McClellan what “he thought to be the case.” But, he says, McClellan believes, “the president didn’t know it was not true.”, so, what are we supposed to believe??

Was Bush operating under the misconception of bad information and spoke only what he knew, even if it was wrong?? That bad info thing and Bush’s reaction to bad info was enough to take us into Iraq, think about that…

Or is McClellan telling the truth in his 1st statement, a very real possibility, or, is the publisher attempting to do some damage control, or, is McClellan simply trying to pique interest in his upcoming rag and hoping to increase future book sales, another possible scenario…

The decisions are yours, it will be interesting to see how this one plays out and to see just who is telling the truth and who has lied, and it will be interesting to see how many ways this story changes along the way and I believe there will be some facts brought out in this that will surprise many, on all sides of the political spectrum, and some folks aren’t going to be happy either…

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