An old Chinese proverb tells us that, “When elephants fight… mouse should not be under foot.”

Scott McClellan, George W. Bush’s former press secretary, seems like a nice enough guy… a little fat, a little short, and a little bald… but all in all a nice guy. It’s just a shame that no one in the Bush White House warned him of the dangers of being under foot when elephants fight. He could have saved himself a lot of grief, a lot of self-inflicted pain, and a whole lot of public humiliation… which is yet to come.

Although a few people from time to time end up, almost as if by accident, just a stone’s throw from the seat of power, they are the exception. Monica Lewinsky was there, almost by accident, and she ended up being very near the seat of power… just inches away. The Clinton White House was replete with incompetents, most of whom could not pass an FBI background check. But they were historic exceptions, unique to the Clinton Administration.

Outside of those exceptions, landing a job in the White House as a presidential aide is not an easy thing to do. I know. I’ve been through that wringer twice.

The first time, during the early days of Ronald Reagan’s first term, I was selected by White House Counsel Ed Meese to serve as a Deputy Assistant Counsel to the President. I was told it was a “done deal.” However, it seems I had a powerful enemy, a Washington insider who didn’t want to see me have a more significant White House role than the one he’d enjoyed during the Eisenhower Administration. As I focused my attention on moving into the White House I was blindsided by a political “elephant.” Mr. Meese had to move on without me.

Then, early in President Reagan’s second term, two members of his inner circle nominated me for the position of Special Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs, a principal White House liaison with governors and other state and local officials.

As a director of the State Governmental Affairs Council; as a former member of the General Committee on State Relations of the American Petroleum Institute; as a former member of the Business Advisory Board, American Legislative Exchange Council; as a founder and a Steering Committee member of the National Republican Legislative Campaign Committee, Republican National Committee; and as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the State Legislative Policy Institute, National Center for Legislative Research… I was thought to be the best qualified Reaganite in the country to fill that position.

After two White House interviews I was told that I was “the only candidate on a list of one” for that position. However, with a White House hiring freeze in place, ordered by Chief of Staff Donald Regan, my appointment would have to wait until a person of equal rank left the White House staff. And although I felt a bit secure being “the only candidate on a list of one,” it was still necessary to assemble a support group to insure that the appointment would not be derailed.

In the days that followed I assembled what was, arguably, one of the most powerful support groups ever assembled by a presidential appointee “in waiting.” I had the endorsement and active support of Governor Dick Thornburgh (R-PA), a member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations; Senator H. John Heinz, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, on behalf of all senate Republicans; Senator Phil Gramm (D-TX), the president’s favorite Democrat; Frank Fahrenkopf, Chairman of the Republican National Committee; former Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis, the president’s chief political advisor; the principals of three major conservative think tanks; and many more.

With my support group in place I waited by the telephone. I waited through the spring and summer and into the fall, keeping my support group updated on a daily basis. Finally, in early November, the call came… a call from the Office of White House Personnel, informing me that I was to be appointed Special Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs.

Unfortunately, my euphoria was short lived. Just two days later I learned that I would not get the appointment after all. On the day that I was appointed, Chief of Staff Donald Regan needed a vote in Congress and he traded away my appointment to a member of Congress in exchange for that vote. The congressman sent a member of his staff to the White House, a young woman who had no qualifications whatsoever for the job. And as she began to represent the president at meetings of the National Governors’ Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, her incompetence was immediately evident.

She quickly became a major embarrassment to the president and was fired from the White House staff… along with her immediate superior, an assistant to the president and “designated scapegoat.” The elephants were playing their favorite game and three mice got stepped on.

Several days later the White House contacted my congressman, asking if I would be interested in an appointed as Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs, a step up the ladder from being a “special assistant.” In anger, I suggested he tell them not to contact me again until they got serious about surrounding the president with really competent and qualified people.

Scott McClellan joined the Bush entourage as traveling press secretary during the 2000 presidential campaign. In that capacity he was shielded from the harsher realities of politics by Bush and by Karen Hughes, his mentor. But in the White House… first as deputy press secretary and later as press secretary… he was clearly out of his depth. Standing before the jackals of the White House press corps, he was the proverbial “deer on the headlights.”

Now he has written a “tell-all” book that was apparently “tweaked” by his Bush-hating publisher before it went to press. It was just the sort of raw meat that the Bush-haters in Congress were hungering for and McClellan may soon find himself testifying to the things he says in his book, under oath, before the House Judiciary Committee.

If he stands by the assertions in his book he can be found guilty of perjury and contempt of Congress. On the other hand, if he reverses himself and attempts to blame the falsehoods in the book on his publisher, his book will not be worth the paper it’s printed on.

Either way, Scott McClellan is destined to leave Washington with a whole lot fewer friends than when he arrived… exactly none. He will have been trampled into nothingness by fighting elephants, a battle that was far beyond his limited capabilities.

Harry Truman once said, “If you want a friend in Washington… get a dog.” If I were Scott McClellan I’d be out shopping the kennels and the pet stores.