Wexler Wants McClellan to Testify

Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., is calling on former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan to testify under oath before the House Judiciary Committee on the Bush administration's "deliberate efforts to mislead" the public heading into the Iraq war.

If you've heard a shred of news today, you know that McClellan is making made tidal waves with his tell-all book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception."

McClellan, who said on the morning talk-show circuit today that the White House wanted him to keep quiet about his experiences, maintains that President Bush stayed in "permanent campaign culture" and allowed his staff to use misleading and incomplete information to "sell" the war. Some of his former colleagues refute the claims in the book. "This does not sound like Scot McClellan," McClellan's predecessor, Ari Fleischer, said last night.

Now, Wexler, who has led a campaign to hold impeachment hearings for Vice President Dick Cheney, wants McClellan to detail to Congress his admissions about the Valerie Plame leak scandal.

"The admissions made by Scott McClellan in his new book are earth-shattering and allege facts to establish that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby – and possibly Vice President Cheney - conspired to obstruct justice by lying about their role in the Plame Wilson matter and that the Bush Administration deliberately lied to the American people in order to take us to war in Iraq," Wexler said in a statement.
"The allegations by this former top White House aide – that Rove and Libby deliberately coordinated their stories in order to obstruct justice in the Plame case, that the President deliberately disregarded contradictory evidence related to Iraq, should outrage every American and Congress must respond by initiating immediate aggressive oversight starting with an appearance by McClellan before the House Judiciary Committee. Any continued obstruction by this Administration to prevent White House officials from appearing before Congress cannot be tolerated by this Congress in the face of these shocking revelations."