Plame Cover-Up Continues, McClellan Says on Hill

Scott McClellan took to Capitol Hill today, and in what one Republican dismissed as “book-of-the-month club” meeting, took on the CIA leak case and the Iraq war, among other topics. The former White House press secretary said he didn’t know if a crime had been committed in the CIA outing, but “suspicion still remains” because Bush administration brass won't open up, Talking Points and AP report.

• On vice-presidential aide Scooter Libby, convicted in the Valerie Plame case: “He assured me in unequivocal terms he was not” involved in the outing.
• On pre-Iraq information: “It’s public record that they were ignoring caveats and ignoring contradictory intelligence.”
• On reaction to his book: Bush loyalists are playing “a game of 'gotcha' ... seeking to discredit me through inaccurate personal attacks.”
• On the president: He should embrace “openness and candor and then constantly strive to build trust across the aisle.”

(More Scott McClellan stories.)