Poor Scott McClellan. Even after all this administration has put him through, the departing press secretary got all choked up yesterday as Bush was announcing his early retirement. I know much of the media corps (specifically, those who had to deal with him regularly) had their issues with McClellan, but I always felt sorry for the guy. Clearly his tenure was more contentious than that of predecessor Ari Fleischer, in part because McClellan occupied the podium during more troubled times than Ari. But I also think McClellan had a harder time in the job because, deep down, he was more uncomfortable being dishonest. McClellan always looked strained and slightly gassy when dishing out whatever bologna the administration had fed him. By contrast, Ari, as my colleague Jon Chait detailed long ago, has always had a somewhat more relaxed attitude toward truth-telling.
--Michelle