Bob Dole says Bob Dole is mad at Scott McClellan.
The former Senate majority leader and 1996 Republican presidential candidate sent a nasty e-mail to McClellan calling him a "miserable creature" for his latest book blasting the Bush administration, FOX News has learned.
In the e-mail, Dole basically describes the former White House press secretary as a traitor looking to cash in on the "liberal" media's distaste for President Bush.
"There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don't have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues," the five-term Kansas senator wrote to McClellan. "No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits, and spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique."
He continues: "When the money starts rolling in you should donate it to a worthy cause, something like, 'Biting The Hand That Fed Me.' Another thought is to weasel your way back into the White House if a Democrat is elected. That would provide a good set up for a second book deal in a few years."
White House officials have sharply decried McClellan's book — "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," which criticizes the administration's handling of the Iraq war.
Following reports that McClellan received a $75,000 advance for the book, one senior White House official referenced the Biblical story of Judas selling out Jesus, telling FOX News: "Ironically, in today's dollars that amount is worth exactly 30 pieces of silver."
Press Secretary Dana Perino said the loaded charge in the book is that Bush and his senior advisers intentionally misled the public into the Iraq war, and knew more than they were telling the public.
"We have said over and over that the intelligence was wrong. And we have worked very hard, at President Bush's direction, to change the way the intelligence community works together, but what hurts us is the suggestion that we purposefully sent men and women into war without acknowledging the consequences," she said.
Several Democrats in Congress are looking at the book and considering calling for hearings.
Dole wrote that if McClellan had misgivings about the president's foreign policy, he should have spoken up long ago "like a man," or quit his job.
"That would have taken integrity and courage but then you would have had credibility and your complaints could have been aired objectively. You're a hot ticket now but don't you, deep down, feel like a total ingrate?"
This is the original Dole e-mail:
Scott,
There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don't have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues. No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits, and spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique.
In my nearly 36 years of public service I've known of a few like you. No doubt you will "clean up" as the liberal anti-Bush press will promote your belated concerns with wild enthusiasm. When the money starts rolling in you should donate it to a worthy cause, something like, "Biting The Hand That Fed Me." Another thought is to weasel your way back into the White House if a Democrat is elected. That would provide a good set up for a second book deal in a few years.
I have no intention of reading your "exposé" because if all these awful things were happening, and perhaps some may have been, you should have spoken up publicly like a man, or quit your cushy, high profile job. That would have taken integrity and courage but then you would have had credibility and your complaints could have been aired objectively. You're a hot ticket now but don't you, deep down, feel like a total ingrate?
BOB DOLE
FOX News' Mike Emanuel and Bret Baier contributed to this report.
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