Ask fifty Washington reporters for an assessment of Scott McClellan and forty-nine of them will give you some version of this: He's a nice guy who was in way over his head. (Most of them will be tougher in their analysis of his intellect.)

Given the imminent release of McClellan's "surprisingly scathing" book about the Bush administration, in the words of super-reporter Mike Allen, expect him to be praised as insightful and wise beyond his years in the coming weeks.