I guess he was expecting perky:

Couric: Weren’t you the ultimate complicit enabler, though? I asked a tough question before the Iraq War and you personally called an executive at NBC News and you threatened to deny access to us. McClellan: I did? Couric: Yes, you did, once the war began. McClellan: Me personally? I don’t, I don’t remember that. Couric: But did you strong-arm people into not questioning the administration? McClellan: My style usually wasn’t that way. Couric: Well, it was you who made the call. McClellan: I just, I just don’t remember that. That may be but I certainly don’t remember that incident. In terms of my style of working with reporters, it was usually straightforward when we were dealing with each other; I think I had that reputation with White House reporters. I just don’t recall that specific incident.

One of the signature dirty stories of McClellan’s book (from the reporting as I have not read it) is the story of Bush’s alleged cocaine use. I’m not sure why it’s necessary, if it happened, for McClellan to add it. Here’s the excerpt:

In 1999, at a hotel suite “somewhere in the Midwest,” McClellan recalls the Bush mind when dealing with rumors that the then-Texas governor had used cocaine.
Writes McClellan: “‘The media won’t let go of these ridiculous cocaine rumors,’ I heard Bush say. ‘You know, the truth is I honestly don’t remember whether I tried it or not. We had some pretty wild parties back in the day, and I just don’t remember.’
“I remember thinking to myself, How can that be? How can someone simply not remember whether or not they used an illegal substance like cocaine? It didn’t make a lot of sense.”
And yet, McClellan concludes, “I think he meant what he said in that conversation about cocaine. It’s the first time when I felt I was witnessing Bush convincing himself to believe something that probably was not true, and that, deep down, he knew was not true. And his reason for doing so is fairly obvious — political convenience…”
Bush “has a way of falling back on the hazy memory to protect himself from potential political embarrassment. In other words, being evasive is not the same as lying in Bush’s mind…It would not be the last time Bush mishandled potential controversy. But the cases to come would involve the public trust, and the failure to deal with them early, directly and head-on would lead to far greater suspicion and far more destructive partisan warfare.”

“Hazy memory” must be contagious. First McClellan can’t remember where in the Midwest he heard this Bush statement, and then he forgets to put in his book how he threatened NBC executives.

This also happened in 1999. Why’d McClellan take the job if he had these worries?