We all know the ferocity with which the Bush administration attacks former loyalists who stray from the reservation, and that Scott McClellan has become Public Enemy #1 for them at present. And we've already seen the beginnings of the push back. Scotty's "disgruntled" and exhibiting "puzzling" behavior, and in any case, it sure "doesn't sound like the Scotty we knew...."
But, will it get worse? Undoubtedly.
I've already blogged a bit about this over at The Thorn Papers, but wanted to share here as well.
First thing this morning, on Fox & Friends, morning bobblehead Gretchen Carlson had a very thinly veiled threat for Scotty:
CARLSON: Scott McClellan better not have any skeletons in his closet. I hope he didn’t do anything that he doesn’t want the world to know about because we all have, and all of his secrets are going to be coming out.
And then, within hours, former man-whore and WH press corps plant Jeff Gannon posted the following on his web site (by way of Americablog, since I will under no circumstances link to Guckert/Gannon's dark hole on the web):
What I hear about the book does not sound like the Scott McClellan I knew for two years. I can say without fear of contradiction, that I knew Scott better than any other White House correspondent or Washington reporter.
Note that he leads with the official talking point ("not the Scotty I knew") and then lets us know how he knew him better than any other correspondent or reporter. How well, and in what sense is he implying he knew McClellan?
We all remember the Secret Service logs which showed multiple occasions when Gannon either did not check in but was in the press Room, or checked in and did not check out again until the following day, leading to all sorts of tawdry speculation on who Gannon was servicing in his other ahem professional capacity.
If the dog whistle from Carlson on Fox this morning is any indication, we might be fed some information on those visits yet. At the very least, they're threatening McClellan with some sort of revelation. We'll see.