Did Cheney Tell Libby to Do It?

McClellan, whose book adds new insider details to the growing portrait of a White House with a serious truth problem (see yesterday's column) repeatedly stuck to his talking points despite O'Reilly's scolding.

O'Reilly: "You know that every Bush-hater in the country is using you and your book to smash this administration. . . . Every Bush-hater, and you're playing right into their hands, is using this -- "

McClellan: "I'm just speaking the truth, from my perspective."

And again:

O'Reilly: "The hate-Bush press is using you -- using you -- to humiliate the man and to imply to the world that the man is dishonest. Using you. . . . What you write in your book, as you see it, is being used by people who absolutely want the worst for this country, and for the administration, doesn't that give you pause at all?"

McClellan: "But this is the whole thing about the book is, that there are a lot of good people on both sides. We've got to get rid of the venom and hatred on both sides, and find out how we can come together. I'm a centrist. I believe in working together to solve the problems we've got."

O'Reilly was particularly outraged by McClellan's decision to give his first prime-time interview last week to MNSBC's Keith Olbermann. "You sat there while these people on NBC and some on CNN just raped the president verbally -- just killed him -- and you sat there and you did not defend him," O'Reilly said.

"What has happened with your book, whether this was your intention or not, is that the people who hate Bush, who want the world to see America as an oppressive, bad country, have seized upon your book, alright, and used that -- talk about propaganda -- to say see, even Scott McClellan, even his own guy, says he's an incompetent jerk, that he purposely misled us, that's he's immoral -- even though you're not saying that, they're using you. . . .

"Are you angry that you're being used in this way? You don't look angry. . . . "

McClellan: "I'm just don't view it that way, I guess. . . . Here's the question: Did the Bush White House go off course? Badly off course? . . . That's what you've got to explore. . . .

O'Reilly: "That's history."

McClellan: "But look at where he is today. How badly off course he went. You've got to accept that. I accept that."