Scott McClellan is taking it from all sides in the last few days. The Left sneer at him for being the Administration's tool for so long, and the Right sneer at him for deserting the ship. Well, as the
sister of a diehard Republican with whom I disagree on many public policy issues, I have come to realize
that many Republicans are not so much evil as they are heartbreakingly naive. Some of them really
do believe that the Market is an unseen and benign force. Some really do believe that the Captains of
Industry are good guys who mean well. Some really do believe that Democracy will cure anything. And many really can't deal with contradictions, nuance, or evil intentions because their minds just won't wrap around the concepts.
To me it seems clear that Scott McClellan thought he was doing a good thing to defend the President because his bosses, in whom he at first believed implicitly with that touching, childlike, Republican faith, told him so. It seems clear that slowly the scales dropped away from his eyes. it seems clear that with laudable fortitude he decided to tell what he now saw as the truth. No one should excoriate him for publishing that truth--especially not the left, who were blessed with clearer eyesight from the start.
It is counterproductive and self-serving to assume that only "we" are honest and sincere. The other side may also be honest and sincere--but wrong. We should praise them, not sneer at them, when they finally get it right.
The internal process of learning to see a hero as a flawed human being is a wrenching one, and I think Scott McClellan should get a little credit for exposing his own gullibility and foolishness to public eyes. That takes guts.