(Was wandering through a Borders last year when it dawned on me: publishing really is an industry.)

FWIW, Richard Clarke’s chapter on cybersecurity looks like it’s going to be really interesting, and I’m glad to have a copy before the elections — this topic needs A LOT more discussion. But first McClellan, then Clarke… so many books, so little time!

If the new press has taken up their mantle, then no doubt, whatever publishers submit prospective authors to, McClellan had to go through with them.

So if McClellan was shopping his book idea around in Jan 2007, and it never really went anywhere — but then, he hooked up with Public Affairs (whose editor seems to have been astute enough, and committed enough to help him delve more deeply than he’d originally planned). Public Affairs is evidently not simply a ‘vanity press’, and its unclear why they accepted his book proposal.

But IIRC, the Scooter Libby trial began in Feb 2007, as McClellan was either shopping his book idea, or having to answer difficult questions from the editor at Public Affairs about what he had to say that was worth the cost and hassle of printing books.

So McClellan would have been writing his book (and, quite possibly reading the ‘lefty blogs’, as well as ‘righty’ blogs since both were relevant to his topic) as Libby’s trial proceeded, and on into the summer when Scooter — who’d basically hung him out to dry, along with Cheney, Rove, and GWBush — was pardoned by the Preznit.

And watching those events unfold, while trying to write about the WH, would have prompted anyone’s thoughts to do a bunch of pretzel twists.

Fascinating.

If you’ve not read John Dean’s “Conservatives Without Conscience“, it’s invaluable for pondering the social implications of personal psychology, and the nature of the neocons and BushCheney administration.

And if you read John Dean’s book and think about the implications, you can start to understand how an insider (Paul O’Neill, Scott McClellan) doing some heartfelt, public truth telling is deeply threatening to them. Look at how Pat Robertson went after any evangelical (like Jim Wallis) who dared question his Great Influence. It’s ugly.

They kind of feed on external conflict; internal dissention unglues them. (Kind of like a political version of Enron or the 700 Club; they’ll eat their own young before they’ll tolerate any threat of dissention.)

As nasty as they are about us ‘lefty bloggers’ (and I say that as someone with a history of contributing to the political campaigns of both Dems and Republicans), they’re even more ruthless and vindictive to anyone who’s been in their bubble and then has the audacity to leave.

It wouldn’t be at all surprising if the WH mouthpieces wailing about how they “don’t recognize Scotty” is actually true to their experience. They probably thought Scott McClellan was under their thumb and compliant. But we’ll find out whether he’s made of sterner stuff after all, and it looks like he may be. Here’s hoping… But I can’t say that I envy him (even if I may begin to respect him).

So if you’ll allow a bit of speculation here, the law is loose lips sink ships, a phrase borrowed from the last century, applied now to the unitary executive. Each and every member of the gang, whether he joined willingly or not, is under a (implied perhaps) threat of death if he talks out of turn or slips up otherwise. I’d go so far as to say that this threat applies to everybody all the way up, including Fitz, army generals, senators, everybody.

Even now, with McC’s leaky book out, I have the feeling as others do, that Cheneyco still relies on that threat, which includes govt collapse *if you say the wrong thing*. Perhaps Scottie and his family have thrown down the gauntlet finally, have dared the cabal to try and make good on the threat.

The last remaining Guantánamo detainee with an automatic right to return to the UK is facing the death penalty after being charged with terrorism offences, a legal charity said today.

Binyam Mohammed, 29, from Kensington, west London, denies any wrongdoing and claims all evidence against him was extracted through torture by US interrogators in a Moroccan prison after he was “rendered” there from Pakistan.

The case will now be referred to the US Military Commissions’ Convening Authority, which has 30 days to decide whether to press ahead with the charges.

I feel a bit guilty campaigning so much on behalf of detainees who have national rights as Westerners, since there are hundreds of guys caught up in this meat grinder whose names and stories I don’t even know but whose human rights are undoubtedly being violated every bit as much as are a Canadian’s or a Brit’s. But Khadr remains the one case I can actually do something about in the short term, so that’s what I do. “The last Westerners left at Guantanamo …” — it is horrible to be reduced to that position, but there some of us are.