Comments from Rob Kall at OpEdNews.com

Scott McClellan as Whistleblower-- NOT!

after putting down my dog Vanilla, on Friday, I wrote an article about it, and feeling in a forgiving mood, spoke kindly about Scott McClellan. I decided to write more about it today, especially after reading right winger Peggy Noonan, in yesterday's Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, who says,

"When I finished the book I came out not admiring Mr. McClellan or liking him but, in terms of the larger arguments, believing him. One hopes more people who work or worked within the Bush White House will address the book's themes and interpretations. What he says may be inconvenient, and it may be painful, but that's not what matters. What matters is if it's true. Let the debate on the issues commence.

What's needed now? More memoirs, more data, more information, more testimony. More serious books..."

And I got to thinking and wrote, on Friday that there was something good in what McClellan did. Some readers agreed with me. So today, after seeing him on Meet The Press, with Tim Russert, I thought I'd write a bit more about it. After a few paragraphs, in which I was moving toward calling McClellan a whistleblower-- not a clean one, but a stinky one who, nonetheless was doing some good, I decided to ask one of my whistleblowing heroes-- Sibel Edmonds. Fortunately, she straightened me out, making it clear that he made money and really didn't disclose anything new. We ended up having a half hour conversation.

Sibel told me she absolutely did NOT see him as a whistle blower, based on the entire community of whistle blowers she's involved with-- the National Security whistleblowers coalition. She told me,

"We call these people opportunists, because that's exactly what he is. "

"He is not a whistle blower. It just makes me sick to see that much coverage of this guy."

She told me that real whistleblowers don't seek book contracts because, first, the government agencies can do major editing, and second, the editors themselves do more editing based on their own agendas. She cited Ann Wright's book, Dissent: Voices of Conscience, as an example of whistleblowers telling their story without censorship, but also without making any serious money. To be a whistleblower who makes a difference, she says, you really can't go for a big contract.

I'll be playing audio clips from my interview with Sibel on my new radio show, Wednesday night at 9:00 PM EST and I could use some help getting it transcribed. Any volunteers? I'll email it as two digital audio files.