I’m with Tim F. over at Balloon Juice. This whole brouhaha over his book is annoying at best. Go read his post, as I agree with most of what he’s saying.

The one other thing I’ll say is that the discussion of the story is starting to get into the absurd. I caught a chunk of David Gregory’s show on MSNBC and the one thing I couldn’t believe was that these otherwise smart people were trying to criticize McClellan using clips of him speaking at the podium as Press Secretary. For example, McClellan attacked Richard Clarke for writing a book critical of the administration after he left, using the same attacks that are being leveled against him today.

That’s just stupid. When the Press Secretary is standing at the podium, he’s not giving his personal opinion but is speaking for the President of the United States. To try and claim that what he said at the podium somehow contradicts his current actions is remarkably naive. So, playing footage of him criticizing other critics of the administration while he was the Press Secretary doesn’t really mean anything.

Second, the idea that he should have spoken out during his time as Press Secretary is at least a bit unfair. Politics is adversarial, and when you’re on the team, you’re part of the team and it’s hard to see past the adversarial framework. This is especially true of the current administration, which looks at everything through a partisan, adversarial lens. Put yourself in his shoes and you realize how hard it would’ve been to leave. He probably identified strongly with the White House, since he was basically the guy facing the press each day and dealing with the attacks on “his team.” I can understand why leaving the White House would offer him time and perspective he lacked inside.

I’m not saying the guy is great and that I suddenly think he’s a good guy, just that there are more legitimate criticisms to make. These two are dumb, and what’s worse is that a White House Press Corp member like Gregory should know better.