i didn't know scott mcclellan. no one at public affairs, as far as i recall, knew scott mcclellan. but a proposal came in from an agent in a very, not in a very unusual way. i mean, just kind of came in. and we got off the phone with mcclellan, and i said to him, after all you were the press secretary of george w. bush, what do you know about fun affairs? is this the place you would want to be published? you know, all of our books have a dedication page in the back to three people who i consider my mentors, one of them, the top one, was i.f. stone, one of the great radical journalists of the 196 owe's and 1950's, 19 hoe's, and certainly not somebody who george w. would have found politically sympathetic. ben bradlee, editor of "the washington post," and robert bernstein, chairman of random house, these are the three people whose principles, values we're trying to reflect in our publishing. do you really want to be here? and he said yes. so we started. and in the course of it, we came upon the notion, came upon the fact that he had this sense of having been basically put out to dry,

i didn't know scott mcclellan. no one at public affairs, as far as i recall, knew scott mcclellan. but a proposal came in from an agent whose name i don't even remember, in a very, not in a very unusual way. i mean, just kind of came in. and we got off the phone with mcclellan, and i said to him, after all you were the press secretary of george w. bush, what do you know about public affairs? is this the place you would want to be published? you know, all of our books have a dedication page in the back to three people who i consider my mentors, one of them, the top one, was i.f. stone, one of the great radical journalists of the 1960's and 1950's, 1940's, and certainly not somebody who george w. would have found politically sympathetic. ben bradlee, editor of "the washington post," and robert ernstein, chairman of random house, the gentleman who hired me at ran come house, these are the three people whose principle values we're trying to reflect in our publishing. do you really want to be here? and he said yes. so we started. and in the course of it, we came upon the notion, came up

i did not know scott mcclellan. no one at public affairs books as far as i know scott mcclellan. a proposal came from an agent whose name i don't remember, not in a very unusual way, it just kind of gay men. we got on the phone with mcclellan, and is said to him, after all you were the press , secretary to george w. bush. what do you know about publicaffairs books? all of our books have a dedication page to three people considered my mentors. the top one was i.f. stone, one of the great radical journalists at the 1960's and 1950's, certainly not somebody george w would have found politically sympathetic. ben bradlee and robert bernstein, who was the chairman at random house. i said these are the people whose principal values we are trying to reflect. do you want to be here? he said yes. we came upon the fact that he had this sense of having been basically put out to drive -- dry, put out to say things at the white house that were not true. it offended him, and he wants to say that. -- wanted to say that. we got the book done, it was supposed to be published on a tuesday. it was n

i did not know scott mcclellan. no one at publicaffairs books as far as i know scott mcclellan. a proposal came from an agent whose name i don't remember, not in a very unusual way, it just tod of came in. i said mcclellan, you were the press secretary to george w. bush. what yunnan about public affairs ? -- what do you know about publicaffairs books? all of our books have a dedication page to three people considered my mentors. -- of them was i at stone stone, certainly not somebody george w would have found politically sympathetic. robert bernstein, who was the chairman at random house. i said these are the people whose principal values we are trying to reflect. do you want to be here? he said yes. we came upon the fact that he beenhis sense of having basically put out to drive -- dry, put out to say things at the white house that were not true. it offended him, and he wants to say that. -- wanted to say that. we got the book done, it was supposed to be published on a tuesday. -- on not supposed to be a thursday night, a young fellow named mike allen starting out writing washi

one day i get a phone call from scott mcclellan who was then the deputy press secretary at the white house and he says the president didn't like that story you wrote this morning. and i said, well, what didn't he like about it? he said, he just didn't like it. it was george w. bush. i thought back what was the story. the story was that president bush takes a big pride in the fact that he never changes his mind. well, here are three places where he changed his mind and it was on the front page of "usa today" that day. so i says, well, what's wrong with the story? anything inaccurate there? well, no. well, what does he want? he says, well, nothing, i guess -- he goes -- well, 3:00 in the afternoon comes, this was in the morning, 3:00 in the afternoon comes and he calls again and said the president is wrong about that story. i knew what was going on, the president was saying you tell benedetto he is a big blank. i says what do you want? he says can i tell him you've been add mmonished? i said you go back and tell him anything you want. so he probably went back and said, i told him. >> n