Return of McClellan

I am FED UP with what I'll call "reporting without substance" - or with minimal substance so as to turn speculation into "the real story." Stuff like you see here. (Yes, that's a FOX News article.)

Here's the big "ooh, ooh! Bush lied!!!" moment:

Former WH man Scott McClellan has a new book out (I don't think that's record time, but I'm sure it's close...). In it, there's one released, carefully-selected excerpt (found here) where he says the administration deceived him about what he was saying regarding the Valerie Plame non-scandal. Does he say how he was deceived or what the deception was about? Nope! Not yet, and I'm curious to see what he actually means. But the media has turned this into, "Bush lied about Scooter Libby telling Bob Novak that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA (in the house that Jack built.)"

I'm not sure what McClellan has to say yet, since I haven't read his book yet - and neither has anyone else, I'd venture to say - aside from from the oh-so-compelling, non-specific excerpt.

I am fairly certain, though, what the real scandal was here:.

• Valerie Plame was a desk jockey for the CIA by the time anyone in the media cared about her - and she told people herself about her job.
  
• Bob Novak found out Valerie Plame was a desk jockey for the CIA from Richard Armitage, a Clinton administration official.
  
• Bob Novak (whom I think has destroyed any semblance of his own moral authority, although a lot of people you'd otherwise think were smart still revere and like to quote him) blabbed about Valerie Plame to fill up his required weekly wordspace.
  
• Bob Novak refused to tell anyone that Armitage was his source until after Scooter Libby was ridden out of town on a rail, due to Novak's allowing an entirely misdirected investigation to proceed about something that was not a crime in the first place.

And now, therefore..."Mainstream" media proclaim Bush/Cheney lied and scapegoated Scooter Libby, deceiving poor Scotty McClellan in the process!

No wonder Drudge and the "New media" have made such thorough inroads to spreading news.