Aides choose royalties over loyalties

Too Loyal to Kiss and Tell? Some White House Press Secretaries Don't Mind

MATT APUZZOAP News
Nov 23, 2007 15:58 EST
White House press secretaries, who speak for the president and appear before the nation on his behalf, have traditionally kept their secrets while their bosses are in office

That unwritten rule has faded in the face of big advances for political tell-all books.
Scott McClellan, who served as White House press secretary for nearly three years of the Bush administration, surprised his former colleagues last week when his publisher released three teaser paragraphs from his upcoming book. The excerpt seemed to blame President Bush for McClellan's false statements during the early days of the CIA leak scandal.
"The old rules and old standards of what was considered proper and what was not are less and less abided by," said Jody Powell, who served as President Carter's press secretary. "That's true in all walks of life."
Plenty of press secretaries have written behind-the-scenes views of the West Wing. But such glimpses have traditionally been available only after the president has left office. George Christian, for instance, published "The President Steps Down," about the end of President Johnson's administration, a year after LBJ left the White House

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