Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan has inspired me.

As some of you may know, I served for more than two years as the Communications Director for the Indiana Democratic Party, and McClellan’s new tell-all book got me thinking I should tell all of the party’s innermost secrets right here on the Capitol WatchBlog.

No, wait. Hang on a second.

I’d never do that.

Know why?

Because it’s disloyal and stupid to kiss and tell. Also, it usually doesn’t work out well in the long run.

See, McClellan may rake in a pretty penny from his book deal. He’ll get to tour the country and speak to a few big audiences and become a temporary poster child for the “I told you Dubya was an idiot” crowd. (Incidentally, I don’t need to read his book to draw that conclusion.)

And then, suddenly, it will all be over. Fifteen minutes gone by. No more glitz and intrigue. Just Scott McClellan with a chunk of change and a lot of enemies.

Now, I’m not going to tell you that political hacks who stay loyal and don’t air their dirty laundry at Borders have no enemies.

If you work in politics, you have enemies.

Scratch that.

If you are a living adult who regularly interacts with other people, you have enemies.

But there’s a huge difference between pissing someone off at, say, a slating convention and essentially calling your former boss, who also happens to be the President of the United States, an unwittingly deceptive fella who doesn’t really think for himself.

That’s just not going to go over well.

I especially identify with McClellan’s situation because when you work in communications, you often times know a lot more than other people in the office about really sensitive things. It’s your job to know these things because someone might ask you about them, and you don’t want to be the flack who stares blankly back at a reporter and says, “Um, what?”

But having access to information means you have to be even more trustworthy.

What McClellan did is inexcusable. I don’t like George W. Bush. I don’t think he’s a good President. That’s why I’d never work for him.

If McClellan felt the same way, he should have quit. Instead, he’s going to spend the next few news cycles in the limelight and the rest of his life in political purgatory. And that’s precisely what he deserves.