May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan says in a memoir that President George W. Bush manipulated public opinion through a ``political propaganda campaign'' to justify going to war in Iraq.

McClellan, a longtime Bush loyalist from his Texas days, also writes that the news media largely failed to critically examine the administration's justifications for invading Iraq, according to a copy of the book obtained by Bloomberg News. The book is scheduled to be sold in bookstores next week.

The memoir, ``What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception,'' adds to the record of critical examinations of Bush and his administration as the president nears the end of his term. It also will bolster Democratic and Republican opponents of the war.

Bush was ``surprised'' and ``disappointed'' by the tone of the book when informed about it last night, administration spokeswoman Dana Perino said today.

``He doesn't recognize this as the Scott McClellan that he hired and confided in and worked with for so many years,'' Perino told reporters aboard Air Force One as the president traveled to Utah for a political event.

McClellan didn't respond to a request for comment.

McClellan, 40, worked in Bush's first presidential campaign and was a fierce defender of Bush during his years at the White House, first as deputy press secretary and then as chief spokesman. He left in April 2006. At the time, Bush praised him for handing his assignments ``with class, integrity'' and said he would be ``hard to replace.''

`Permanent Campaign'

In the book, published by Public Affairs in New York, McClellan wrote about what he called Bush's ``lack of inquisitiveness'' and that the White House was guided by a ``permanent campaign'' culture.

McClellan also says Karl Rove, then the president's senior adviser, and I. Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, as the vice president's chief of staff, had ``at best misled'' him about their roles in leaking to the news media the identity of Central Intelligence Agency operative Valerie Plame while he continued to publicly defend them.

McClellan says the White House kept a tight lid on information about the planning for the war in Iraq. The president became enraged in September 2002 when his top economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, was cited in the Wall Street Journal estimating that the war might cost $100 billion to $200 billion, according to McClellan.

`Unacceptable'

``It's unacceptable,'' McClellan quotes Bush as saying. ``It's unacceptable. He shouldn't be talking about that.''

Lindsey's ``mistake,'' McClellan says, was in talking about an aspect of the looming war that ``wasn't part of the script'' for selling it to the public.

Bush dismissed Lindsey in December 2002, about three months after he gave the estimate. At the time, then-Budget Director Mitch Daniels and other administration officials dismissed Lindsey's figure as too high. Daniels said the conflict would cost about the same as the $61 billion spent on the 1991 Persian Gulf conflict.

Both estimates have since been proved too low. The amount appropriated by Congress, along with pending requests for funding, put the war costs at $660 billion through fiscal 2009.

McClellan also reveals other flashes of anger by Bush during the run-up to the war. Bush was irritated, he said, when he learned that a German justice minister had compared him to Adolf Hitler. ``I won't put up with that crap,'' McClellan quoted Bush as saying.

Social Security

McClellan criticizes the way the White House handled other big issues, including its failed attempt at a Social Security overhaul after Bush's 2004 re-election. The White House didn't spend enough time ``deliberating with members of Congress to work out details of our reform plan'' and did ``minimal outreach to Democrats'' to build consensus, he said.

In a chapter titled ``Out of Touch,'' McClellan says the White House was too sluggish in its response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

``Our White House team had already weathered many disasters, from the hurricanes of the previous year all the way back to the unprecedented calamity of 9/11,'' he says. ``As a result, we were probably a little numb (``What, another tragedy?'') and perhaps a little complacent (``We've been through this before.'')''

`Little Choice'

McClellan says Bush later said he had ``little choice but to praise'' Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for his handling of the disaster. ``He was standing right there, and I was trying to pump everybody's morale. What was I supposed to do?'' McClellan quotes Bush as saying. His public endorsement of Brown's performance -- ``Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job'' -- was mocked as a symbol of the White House's mishandling of the incident.

Former White House officials who worked with McClellan said today he should have expressed his concerns about the Bush administration's handling of major issues, including the war in Iraq, while he was still part of the team.

``If Scott had such deep misgivings, he should not have accepted the press secretary position,'' said former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, who was McClellan's boss during the run- up to the war. ``I disagree with Scott's assessments, and am heartbroken.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Edwin Chen in Washington at echen32@bloomberg.net; Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 28, 2008 16:51 EDT