Bob Dole goes off on Scott McClellan

The Politico has obtained and verified the authenticity of a scathing email former Senator and GOP nominee for prez. Bob Dole sent to Scott McClellan:

“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.”

[…]

“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?”

Ouch. Remind me to never get on his bad side.

In related news, get this: McClellan has reportedly apologized to another shameless book-peddling opportunist by the name of Richard Clarke for remarks he made in 2004 criticizing him for waiting until he was no longer a part of the admin to voice his complaints:

In an encounter last night in the lobby of a New York hotel, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan apologized for denouncing a former White House colleague, Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism adviser, after Clarke wrote a book highly critical of the Bush administration in 2004.

Now McClellan is facing a similar denunciation from the White House for his own highly critical book.

“I should have known how personal it would get when they went after me, well, I mean, after what I said about you,” Clarke says McClellan told him in the lobby of New York’s Essex House.

“I think I can forgive you now,” Clarke says he replied.

“I’d like to ask you to,” McClellan reportedly answered.

Clarke’s claims have proven dubious before. I’d like to hear a confirmation one way or the other from McClellan, who was given first class treatment by Keith Olbermann last night on “Countdown.”

The DNC is now featuring McClellan, who admitted this week that he was “intrigued” by Barack Obama, prominently in ads against Republicans.

Via Curt at Flopping Aces, who has a link round-up.