WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., in an e-mail said ex-White House spokesman Scott McClellan was a "miserable creature" cashing in at the president's expense.
In the e-mail, obtained and authenticated by Politico, Dole classified McClellan as a classic opportunist.
McClellan, White House press secretary from July 2003 to April 2006, said disillusionment led him to write, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," scheduled to hit book shelves next week, but already the subject of extensive press coverage.
"There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don't have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues," Dole wrote in the message sent Thursday. "No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits and, spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique."
Michael Marshall, Dole's spokesman, confirmed to Politico that Dole sent the message.
"Yes, it is authentic," Marshall wrote in an e-mail.
Dole wrote to McClellan that he won't read the book, because if "all those awful things" occurred, "you should have spoken up publicly like a man, or quit your cushy, high-profile job."
