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NEW YORK (CBS) ― Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's book, 'What Happened,' has Washington in an uproar. Many are wondering what his motivation was to write such a scathing attack on his former boss, President George Bush.

Our friends over at WCBS880.com conducted a phone interview on Wednesday with McClellan's predecessor, Ari Fleischer, who tried to shed some light on what may have driven McClellan to attack the president.

WCBS880: "Ari, what do you make of this book?"

Ari Fleischer: "Well, it doesn't make any sense to me this book. And I say this as somebody who Scott worked for me for two and-a-half-years, we were shoulder to shoulder. He never once came up to me and expressed any doubts told me he had any questions about what we were doing and he himself repeatedly took the podium and said the very same things that he now says are propaganda. So, something changed with Scott most recently and I wish I knew what it was. But this is so inconsistent with everything Scott did privately and then publicly."

WCBS880: "Well he was a Bush loyalist, you do agree with that right?"

Fleischer: "No question about it. Scott came from Texas; he was one of the original staffers."

WCBS880: "Do you think he had a change of heart? Is his conscience bugging him? Or what do you think?"

Fleischer: "Well, he must have had a change of heart clearly. We had breakfast about a year and a half ago, we remained close... and Scott told me the book was going to be a favorable book for President Bush. And even about a year ago, Scott was on a TV show defending the Iraq War and defending President Bush. Something more recently must have changed that Scott would dramatically change his mind. What I have a hard time understanding is, he wouldn't be the first person to criticize the President he worked for. There's an honorable tradition of people in this country doing that. But the people who worked with him always knew that. There was always a sense on the inside that this person disagreed, they had a policy difference, there was no hint of that with Scott. And that's why I am stumped about how Scott could have written this book."

WCBS880: "This seems to be a far cry from the day McClellan left the White House, when the President said this: 'One of these days he and I'll be rocking on chairs in Texas talkin' about the good old days of his time as the press secretary' I don't know if I see them sitting on the porch any time soon..."

Fleischer: "Well I asked Scott that yesterday... that very question. I called him yesterday and we talked about the book and I said to him, 'I wonder if you're going to sit on that front porch swinging in that chair' and he didn't say anything. I think he knows he's burned a lot of bridges with this book, you know the worst thing is I think Scott for 24 hours is going to become a hero to many on the political left who will use him for those 24 hours and then discard him and for all those who like Scott and always enjoyed working with him... Scott's burned a lot of bridges 'cause none of us can understand how he can come to the conclusions on substance that he now comes to and written such things about the President."

WCBS880: "Ever find yourself in a position where you wanted to speak out against your boss, particularly in this case President Bush?"

Fleischer: "Not speak out. There are obviously issues where I disagree with President Bush. I've worked for three US congressmen, one senator and one president. I couldn't possibly agree with all of them on everything. But your job is a staffer. Your job is to represent the person with his or her name on the ballot who ran for office on that person's positions. And if you're not comfortable with that position, don't take the job. If Scott had harbored doubt, if there were things that were troubling him in his heart, he should not have accepted the position as Press Secretary. On principle, he should have said - it's not a job I want to have. And that's again why I have such a hard time understanding what it was that led Scott to such a dramatic reversal of position."

WCBS880: "Ari, as you guys move on to the private sector is there any sort of code and unwritten rule... you know, what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room... where you don't break bat on the boss?"

Fleischer: "There's nothing said about that, it's not as if we get together with a secret society with a handshake once a year and reconfirm our vows... but, I think it's human nature. In any organization you work for that if you liked where you work and you were treated well then it's reflected in the things that you do and that is certainly in my case. Scott did have a much rougher time in The White House. Scott went through a much more difficult era than the era I was there... I was there for September 11th and for two wars, but for much of it the president was popular and that makes a big difference and Scott was there at a much harder time. And then Scott certainly had reason to feel bad about the way he was treated by two individual staffers in the White House in regard to the CIA leak case. But I don't think that gives Scott license to say things about the president the way he did, and to accuse the president of manipulating information, providing propaganda to the American people. I think that crosses a line. And it's a line I would never cross, I don't believe it and I'm not comfortable with people who say it."

You can listen to the entire interview here.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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