McClellan: Give Gibbs Access to All Meetings

Bush administration press secretary-turned-critic Scott McClellan said that President Obama should give his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, access to any meeting Gibbs wants to attend.

“I think that the biggest key for Gibbs, and I think he has this commitment, is that he needs to have a commitment from the president that says, ‘Look, I can attend any meeting, any place, any time, that I so choose,'” McClellan said in an interview with The New Republic.

The former Bush spokesman said that access to the meeting would help make for more informative briefings, and would inform Gibbs of his boundaries as spokesman.

McClellan, who served as the White House’s chief spokesman in the Bush administration during the height of its foreign policy woes, also advised the Obama administration to make senior administration officials more available to the press.

“A press secretary is only authorized to go so far,” McClellan told the left-leaning magazine. “Like right now, with the economy being at the forefront, bring in Larry Summers or Secretary Geithner on certain days when you