Political world abuzz over Scott McClellan's tell-all book

No longer.

In a new memoir, McClellan has presented chapter after chapter of accusations that some of the administration's most senior officials regularly lied to the public, conducted a "permanent campaign" to advance Republican political interests and managed the debate leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq in a way that "almost guaranteed that the use of force would become the only feasible option."

Though criticism from a former official is not unheard of, such sharp words from someone like McClellan set the political world aswirl Wednesday, stirred outrage in the blogosphere and drew a tart but wounded brushoff from the White House. President Bush, however, maintained a public silence.

The title of McClellan's 323-page account said it all: "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception." And the outcry surrounding the disclosure of its contents went on and on.

Cable TV news shows competed to grab Bush allies and enemies to chatter about the McClellan they knew. On CNN, Dan Bartlett, Bush's former counselor who worked with McClellan for nearly a decade, said the onetime spokesman gave voice to "an outrageous accusation that mostly was coming from the left wing of the Democratic Party."

Former White House political strategist Karl Rove, reacting to an assertion that senior officials had misled McClellan on the legal problems of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, told Fox News:

"If he had these moral qualms, he should have spoken up about them. And, frankly, I don't remember him speaking up about these things. I don't remember a single word."

"It's really disgusting," said one Texas Republican who has known McClellan for a decade -- and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because "I don't want to get down in the gutter with the guy."

"He was nothing before he was hired by Bush," the Texan said.

Others couldn't decide whether to give McClellan a verbal spanking for his disloyalty or applaud him for expressing complaints that they too had harbored.