Alastair Campbell: "I've been through a lot on this...I'm a bit upset"
Mr Campbell had to take a moment to compose himself after being asked the question on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
He said the subject kept being brought up by those wanting to "settle scores".
Mr Campbell also said he did not think current Prime Minister Gordon Brown had intended to cry during an interview with Piers Morgan recorded for ITV.
It has been reported by the Mail on Sunday that the PM shed tears as he talked of the death of his daughter Jennifer, during an interview for Piers Morgan's Life Stories recorded on Saturday.
During his own emotionally charged interview on Sunday morning, Mr Campbell was asked by Andrew Marr about Tony Blair's assertion that he believed the case for Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction was proved "beyond doubt" by the intelligence.
Mr Marr asked: "If beyond doubt is not established in the intelligence when this inquiry looks at the intelligence, does it then follow, yes or no, the prime minister misled Parliament?"
Mr Campbell, who has a new novel out, replied that Mr Blair "did not mislead Parliament" before being pressed again. He began to reply but paused, looking close to tears. (the crocodile variety!)
'Constant vilification'
He (Campbell) said: "I've been through a lot on this Andrew. And I've been through a lot of that inquiry... and... Tony Blair, I think, is a totally honourable man."
Mr Campbell said the media was obsessed with "settling your scores and setting your own agenda".
"You did it again this morning, which is probably why I'm a bit upset, this constant sort of vilification.
"You compared the novel to the dossier, and it's all fiction and all the rest of it. It's not. And I just think the way that this whole issue has developed now where I don't think people are interested in the truth anymore, Andrew."
He added: "I'm sorry if I do get upset about this but I was there alongside Tony, I know how that decision weighed on him, I know the care that we took."
Mr Campbell said he understood why people were "upset" about the decision to become involved in the conflict.
But, he added: "The reason people are going over it again and again and again is because those who do disagree with the judgment that Tony Blair made actually don't want to see the other side of the story."
'Many people upset' by
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague, speaking later on the Andrew Marr Show, said he was sorry that "Mr Campbell was upset" by the questions but "we are all upset by what happened in
Mr Hague added: "I am very upset that it seems our soldiers were often sent into action without the necessary equipment because of poor political decision making, that there was no plan for the aftermath of the invasion of
"We are all upset. I am upset about the fact that in a debate in which I supported Tony Blair at the time of the Iraq War, we were told that the intelligence was authoritative and extensive and beyond doubt, and it seems listening to the Chilcot Inquiry, that that was not the case.”
"I think many people are upset in different ways about it, and that must not stop us learning the lessons.”
Asked if he thought Tony Blair had misled Parliament, Mr Hague said: "I feel that increasingly in many aspects of the case Parliament was misled but I think to come to an overall judgement on that question we have to see the inquiry result as a whole - this inquiry has been set up after years of pressure from us and other opposition parties."
Later in his interview with Andrew Marr, Alastair Campbell was asked about the reports of Mr Brown's tears during the Piers Morgan interview set to be broadcast next weekend.
He said he advised Mr Brown ahead of the programme, which he hoped would help the PM reach a wider audience.
"The only communication that works now really is where people are being utterly authentic. The public, they hear all this stuff about spin, they know the media spin, the politicians do it and they can see when people are being authentic."
He added: "If Gordon just talks about some of these issues as he really feels then maybe the public will see a different side."
But Mr Campbell said he did not believe the prime minister, whose daughter died in 2002 10 days after being born prematurely, had gone on television "with the purpose of crying".
The PM's wife, Sarah Brown, posted a message on Twitter on Sunday to a member of the studio audience who had sent her a message hoping she was ok.
Mrs Brown said: "Thank you for coming to watch the interview too - it was a great audience, so warm."
PUKE!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8502730.stm
http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=152054172
http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=152058963
Some people believe this:
http://similarminds.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6071
"..The simplest, clearest and truest portrait of the psychopath is given in the titles of three seminal works on the subject: Without Conscience by Robert Hare, The Mask of Sanity by Hervey Cleckley, and Snakes in Suits by Robert Hare and Paul Babiak. A psychopath is exactly that: conscienceless. The most important thing to remember is that this lack of conscience is hidden from view behind a mask of normality that is often so convincing that even experts are deceived. As a result, psychopaths become the Snakes in Suits that control our world.
Psychopaths lack a sense of remorse or empathy with others. They can be extremely charming and are experts at using talk to charm and hypnotize their prey. They are also irresponsible. Nothing is ever their fault; someone else or the world at large is always to blame for all of their problems or their mistakes. Martha Stout, in her book The Sociopath Next Door, identifies what she calls the pity ploy. Psychopaths use pity to manipulate. They convince you to give them one more chance, and to not tell anyone about what they have done. So another trait - and a very important one - is their ability to control the flow of information..."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-EiKPrAOHA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjF7GMP28X8
"The memoirs of Alastair Campbell are to be published within days of the Prime Minister Blair leaving Downing Street, it was announced yesterday.
Tony Blair's propagandist-in-chief will earn more than £1million from the book detailing his time at No 10, including his role in the naming of weapons expert Dr. David Kelly which contributed to his suicide.
Campbell will earn a similar fee for serialisation with Blair-supporting newspapers The Sun and The Times, for which he writes an occasional sports column.
Cashing in: Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's former spin chief, has agreed a huge deal with Random House to publish his secret diaries once Mr Blair resigns
Publishers Random House confirmed they had received the first extracts of the book called The Blair Years and that it would be published as soon as Mr Blair quits, probably in July.
Sources say that Mr Campbell will use the book to settle scores with his opponents in politics and the media in a volume covering Mr Blair's 13 years as Labour leader. His full two million word diaries will be published later as a series.
The book is a ticking timebomb for Gordon Brown. It will come out as he is expected to begin his premiership and could prove embarrassing, since it is expected to lay bare the Blair-Brown civil war.
Mr Campbell is widely believed to have described the Chancellor as "psychologically flawed" - a description which has dogged Mr Brown.
Alastair Campbell and partner Fiona Millar, who worked as a special adviser to Cherie Blair
He has pledged to submit his manuscript for scrutiny by the Cabinet Office but opposition MPs say they will be waved through because of his connections in Government.
In contrast, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's former ambassador to Iraq, had to put his memoirs on hold after pressure by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. Britain's former envoy in Washington Sir Christopher Meyer and former No 10 spin doctor Lance Price were also subjected to criticism from ministers for publishing their diaries.
Tory frontbencher Chris Grayling said: "I'm happy to see the irony in Alastair Campbell cashing in on his time in Downing Street given how quickly the Government has sat on other people who have tried to do the same in the last couple of years.
"The person who should be most worried is Gordon Brown, since it may well have been Campbell who described him as being psychologically flawed. I suspect these diaries will blow the lid off the tensions between Brown and Blair."
Liberal Democrat Norman Baker said: "The idea that he should make a mint from a final exercise in spin sticks in the gullet. It seems the wages of spin are really rather good....."