Putting dogs to sleep and Scott McClellan ... probably not what you think.

I read this post because I recently had to put a very old and very special border collie to sleep. The post ends with this message:

Somehow, this experience today is giving me a bit more tolerance. Even for Scott McClellan. I'm wondering. Is there a chance that he's actually doing this for a good reason? That he's really trying to set things right? We see how the right wing is all attacking him. What if other former Bush people develop guilt or wake up and decide to do the right thing? It would be nice if they were appreciated for telling the truth. They should assume that Bush's enablers and co-conspirators will attack them. They might even expect that the complicit mainstream media people who allowed them to lie, without challenging, without asking tough questions, might, as passive co-conspirators, attack them.

But if potential truth-tellers see that the reward for telling the truth is villification from everyone, even from those who seek the truth, then it will be that much more daunting for them to. Maybe we need to be thankful that McClellan is now telling more truth. ...

I've been watching the reactions to McClellan. The reaction that surprises me the most is from those who dismiss the McClellan's statements with, 'well, we already knew that, anyway.'

I have no idea why McClellan is telling the truth now. I wish more of Bush's stooges were able to bring themselves to come out with the truth at the time. But we all know what happened to those who did and ... I cannot honestly decide which route I would have taken. I think it may have depended on which stage of my life I was in ...

Having 'what we already know' confirmed by McClellan is no small matter. It has upset many of the enablers in the media and made them look foolish as they pretend they are guiltless. They will get over it too quickly but without McClellan, or someone like him, that would not have happened. It also helps confirm what 'we already knew' to a larger set. It has a certain credibility coming from McClellan. After all he has inside and situational knowledge we can only guess at.

And ... we should encourage the truth. If we want the truth we should not criticize and belittle the teller of that truth for confirming that we were right in the first place. No matter what McClellan's motives in telling the truth (conscience, money, survival) we should not make it even more difficult for others to tell the truth. One can respect the truth without respecting everything McClellan has done.