In an interview this morning on the "Today Show," former White House press secretary Scott McClellan spoke out about his new book "What Happened" for the first time.

Asked why he's releasing the book now McClellan stuck to what he says is "the larger message [that] has been sort of lost in the mix", what he called "the permanent campaign culture in Washington DC."

"My hope is that in some small way it might help us from the destructive, partisan warfare from the past 15 years," McClellan said.

McClellan talked about the transition from working for Bush in Texas and then the White House and his disappointment that they had failed to live up to their "Uniter, not a Divider" message.

Asked if he was thrown under the bus, McClellan said, "That's one way to look at it."

McClellan talked about the Valerie Plame Wilson affair in which he says he was told by Scooter Libby and Karl Rove, "No, we were not involved in this."

"I blame myself for going to the podium and passing along information that turned out to be false," McClellan said.

"The other defining moment was in early April 2006 when I learned that the president had secretly declassified the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq for the Vice President and Scooter Libby to anonymously disclose to reporters."

"This was not a deliberate conscious effort [to lie], everything is centered in trying to manipulate the narrative to their advantage," McClellan said, referring to the run-up to the Iraq war. "You get caught up in trying to sell this war for the American people."

"I gave them the benefit of the doubt, I felt like we were rushing into this. Looking back on it now, I don't think I should have."

Referring to the president, McClellan said, "He largely is a gut player, goes on gut instincts when making decisions. Very early on, he made a decision 'we're going to confront Hussein' there was little flexibility."

On Vice President Cheney: "He was given a lot of deference by the President. He was given wide authority to implement things the way he saw best. I think that in a number of ways he has not served the President well, the secrecy and compartmentalization of the White House, I don't think that's a healthy thing in this transparency society."

On Condoleezza Rice: "Too often she was too accommodating...too deferential to [Cheney and Rumsfeld]."

Dan Bartlett responded to McClellan's remarks: "I think the part that strikes all of us as a bit odd, he talks about wanting to change the tone, yet uses harsh language."

Bartlett added that McClellan was not involved in the pre-war phase within the White House: "In that crucial period before the war, in that case he was a Deputy Secretary in charge of domestic affairs, he was not in those meetings."

Bartlett said that most of McClellan's strong accusations lacked evidence to back them up and while other employees would voice concern over certain issues, "Never did I feel like I got that kind of candor from Scott behind the scenes."