The difference between the two ostensibly “insider” accounts could not be more stark.  Where McClellan was not a participant in the decision-making he finds so objectionable, Feith was.  Where McClellan fails to document any of his pronouncements, Feith documents all of his – including, notably, via a website devoted to making declassified papers and other decision-related materials readily accessible to historians and interested citizens.

            Of course, the most profound contrast between the two books is in how they have been received.  McClellan’s has dominated the airwaves and print outlets for days.  Feith’s has received considerable critical acclaim and pick-up in the alternative media – which recognizes the book’s value in countering the “Bush lied, people died” and other urban legends, but nowhere near the mainstream media coverage.  In fact, the New York Times and Washington Post have refused to review it.

            It is not as though Mr. Feith has been uncritical of the Bush administration.  War and Decision lets the chips fall where they may, including with respect to errors made by the author himself.  Interestingly, the day before the McClellan book-selling bandwagon got underway, Ms. Noonan’s Journal published an op.ed. article adapting part of the Feith book under the headline “How Bush Sold the War.” It took to task the President and his handlers – which, ironically, included at the time Scott McClellan – for failing in the aftermath of Saddam’s overthrow consistently to justify that act on vital national security grounds, rather than exclusively as a contribution to democracy-building.

            There is one other noteworthy contrast in this tale of two books.  Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace suggested during last weekend’s show that Scott McClellan might want to counter criticisms of his cashing in on his memoirs by donating the proceeds of the book sales to a charity for veterans of the war that has, evidently, caused him such anguish.  No such encouragement was needed by Doug Feith; he made that commitment from the get-go. 

            On this Peggy Noonan and I agree.  We certainly need more serious books like Doug Feith’s War and Decision.