16 Facts About Scott McClellan

Scott McClellan was the author of a controversial No 1 New York Times bestseller about the Bush administration titled What Happened.

Scott McClellan replaced Ari Fleischer as press secretary in July 2003 and served until May 10,2006.

Scott McClellan is the Vice President for Communications at Seattle University.

Scott McClellan was a top-ranked tennis player there and served as student council president.

Scott McClellan served as campaign manager for three of his mother's successful campaigns for statewide office.

Karen Hughes, then-Governor of Texas George W Bush's communications director, hired McClellan to be Bush's deputy communications director.

Scott McClellan served as Bush's traveling press secretary during the 2000 presidential election.

Scott McClellan replaced Ari Fleischer, who stepped down as White House Press Secretary on July 15,2003.

Scott McClellan announced his resignation as Press Secretary on April 19,2006, and was replaced with Tony Snow.

Scott McClellan criticized the Bush administration in his 2008 memoir, What Happened.

Scott McClellan stopped short of saying that Bush purposely lied about his reasons for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, writing that the administration was not "employing out-and-out deception" to make the case for war in 2002, though he did assert the administration relied on an aggressive "political propaganda campaign" to sell the Iraq War.

Scott McClellan's book was critical of the White House press corps for being too accepting of the administration's perspective on the war, and of Condoleezza Rice for being "too accommodating" and overly careful about protecting her own reputation.

Critics of Scott McClellan's book included former White House staffers such as Karl Rove, Dan Bartlett, Ari Fleischer and Mary Matalin.

Fleischer and Matalin have claimed that Scott McClellan had not shared similar doubts during his tenure in the White House, and that if he had held such doubts then he ought not to have replaced Fleischer as Press Secretary.

Scott McClellan has responded by stating that he, like many other Americans, was inclined to give the administration the "benefit of the doubt" on the necessity of the Iraq War, and did not fully appreciate the circumstances until after leaving the "White House bubble".

Scott McClellan further testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee that Fleischer's assertion was false.