SF Chronicle

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a wide-ranging editorial board interview with The Chronicle today, offered her own views on the bombshell book by former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, who charges that the Iraq war was a bungled policy and the Administration was in ”damage control” over Hurricane Katrina.

While she hasn’t yet read McClellan’s tome ”I totally agree” with his charges, said Pelosi. ”This war was unnecessary. Katrina was a black mark on how the government responded to the needs of our people, and didn’t anticipate them.”

”This is a person who was talking to the press, supplied with information that he trusted to be truthful. So I’m sure he felt zapped. Because what could he say, except what he trusted to be the case?”

”I almost wonder how anybody associated with this war, unless they were of completely different philosophy, would not come to the conclusion that this war is a grotesque mistake, that it was misrepresented from the start, not prepared for correctly,” said Pelosi.

”This war is a big lie. It was a lie to begin with..and it continues to be a lie..at some point, maybe the lies just got to be too heavy for him to carry,” she said of the former White House spokesman.