BOB DOLE!

On Scott McClellan in 2008 (via Politico [1]):

Bob Dole yesterday sent a scalding email to Scott McClellan, excoriating the former White House spokesman as a "miserable creature" who greedily betrayed his former patron for a fast buck.

In an extraordinary message obtained and authenticated by Politico, Dole uses his trademark biting wit to portray McClellan as a classic Washington opportunist.

"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," Dole wrote in a message sent yesterday morning. "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."

Michael Marshall, Dole's spokesman and colleague at the Alston Bird law firm, confirms the message came from the former senator and presidential candidate. "Yes, it is authentic," Marshall wrote in an email.

"In my nearly 36 years of public service I've known of a few like you," Dole writes, recounting his years representing Kansas in the House and Senate. "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"

Dole assures McClellan that he won't read the book -- "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," Dole concludes. "You’re a hot ticket now but don’t you, deep down, feel like a total ingrate?"

He signs the email simply: "BOB DOLE"

On the Watergate scandal in the fall of 1972, showing how it's supposed to be done (via NIXONLAND [2]):

The Post's monopoly provided the White House an opportunity: they could isolate the story as some weird obsession of a single "liberal" newspaper, pursuing some inexplicable vendetta against the president of the United States. They rolled out the triple-barreled attack three Thursdays before the election.

Ziegler at his morning briefing: "I will not dignify with comment stories based on hearsay, character assassination, or guilt by association"—this last being the sin liberals associated with Joe McCarthy.

Bob Dole in a speech to black Republicans [ed.: nice touch, Bob!]: "In the final days of this campaign, like the desperate politicians whose fortunes they seek to save, the Washington Post is conducting itself by journalistic standards that would cause mass resignations on principle from the Quicksilver Times"—the drug-addled D.C. "freak" newspaper. "Given the present straits in which the McGovern campaign finds itself, Mr. McGovern appears to have turned over the franchise on his media attack campaign to the editors of the Washington Post."

Campaign manager Clark MacGregor stepped up to the microphone at 5 p.m., reporters having been gathered on the promise MacGregor would answer questions—then they were told MacGregor would read a statement and wouldn't take any questions...

Bob Dole can credibly defend himself on the 1972 tip by claiming he'd been lied to by the administration. But then he'd just be like Scotty McClellan, wouldn't he be?