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.

Politico has an interesting story this morning on a new book by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan takes several shots at the Bush administration over its handling of the War in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina.

What makes it so fascinating is that McClellan was truly considered to be the “loyal soldier”  of the administration and for him to stray off the plantation says quite a bit.  I will say this, if McClellan had all these problems with the administration then he should have stepped down. 

Having worked for elected officials in the past,  I understand a need to be loyal to your boss. But loyalty isn’t just telling your employer what they want to hear.  You give the candid advice that you are hired to do and then you go do your job.  When that stops working, you need to go find something else to do. 

At the end of the day, you have to be able to sleep at night and look at yourself in the mirror when you wake up in the morning.