friendly fire

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan has written a book sharply critical of President Bush and his administration. It's particularly notable because McClellan is a long-time Bush loyalist, considered by all the president's team to be a good soldier. His attacks will wound, because they're credible and unexpected. It's not quite Geoffrey Howe and Thatcher but...

Of course, Bush's reputation is already in the toilet. But second-term presidents who have experienced a period of deep unpopularity can recover towards the end of their tenure as the nation starts to remember the good things about the guy who's leaving. Bill Clinton can tell you that. This book means that is (even more) unlikely to happen for Bush.

All of which is bad news for John McCain. The unpopularity of the Republican incumbent is the biggest drag on McCain's popularity. The Democrat strategy for the fall is very simple: tie McCain to Bush. If Bush had been able to pull out some kind of recovery, the potency of this approach would have been diluted.

As it is, the timing of this book is terrible from McCain's point of view. He just held a fundraiser with Bush that he tried very hard to keep quiet - although there was a very brief and weird photo op. The conjunction of these two stories will give the cable shows plenty to chew on in the coming days...