Ari Fleischer is a master obfuscator. He runs circles around Scott McClellan on McClellan’s best day. If it benefitted the right, Ari Fleischer would look you dead in the eye during a hurricane and tell you that it was delightfully sunny outside. He’s a friend of this White House.
Ari Fleischer, who served as President George W. Bush’s first press secretary, added to the growing criticism of Vice President Dick Cheney’s handling of the weekend shooting incident in Texas, telling E&P this afternoon that it “crosses the threshold of news worthiness that ought to be announced and explained.”
Fleischer, who was Bush’s first press secretary – from 2001 to 2003 – told E&P that Cheney’s accidental shooting of Texas attorney Harry Whittington on Saturday during a hunting trip should not have taken nearly a day to be reported. “It would have been better if the vice president and/or his staff had come out last Saturday night or first thing Sunday morning and announced it,” he said during a phone interview Tuesday. “It could have and should have been handled differently.”
Look, in the great pantheon of things this administration has done, this incident ranks near the bottom (though if God forbid the man dies, I think Cheney would have to resign) but it’s simply ridiculous the way they’ve closed the door on this issue.
“I cannot believe he does not look back and say this should have been handled differently,” said Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota who is close to the White House. Weber said Cheney “made it a much bigger issue than it needed to be.”
Marlin Fitzwater, a former Republican White House spokesman, told Editor & Publisher magazine that Cheney “ignored his responsibility to the American people.”
History is going to record Dick Cheney as the vice president who accidentally shot a guy, leading to a heart attack (if there had been a pool, I would have picked Dan Quayle as the shoo-in veep to pull the trigger). But he should probably want to not have that record also say “Acted like a cold fish while America finally understood the significance of Cheney’s first name”.
The Empire is crumbling!!!!! Pass the popcorn!!!!!
Cheney is Mr. Gravitas. Big time gravitas.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — About a fifth of Americans think federal agents have listened in on their phone calls, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Tuesday suggests.
Lying about domestic wiretaps without warrants.
Lying about revealing Valarie Plame.
Lying about Weapons of Mass destruction.
Lying about Saadam and Al Quaeda.
Lying about shooting Mr. Harry.
Looks like the first five articles of impeachment.
The paranoia is building and the Empire is crumbling.
Cheney’s always struck me as a mean-spirited and self-centered political hack who parleyed a certain gruff eloquence into an empty reputation for intelligence and omni-competence. Looks like the wig’s finally slipping.
Former GOP White House Press Secretaries And PR Experts Blast Cheney Shooting Handling
Vice President Dick Cheney and the White House are now coming under intense criticism from several prominent former Republican White House press secretaries and public relations experts for the way the press and public learned that Cheney had accident…
Always liked Cheney. Still do. History will not even notice this accident. Like the Plame affair. There is absolutely no principle involved on the left. It is important only to the Bush hating rabble on the left.
Dugger
Or maybe the media and the public is distracted from other issues…like Cheney authorizing leaks. But go ahead and carry on with this issue and allow the administration to continue their real business out of the media spotlight.
After reading this, the part that really stuck out to me was “should not have taken almost a day”. The media is complaining about being informed about something in less than a day. Should they have called the media before calling the ambulance, maybe for a staged photo shoot ?
Even Instapundit (probably attempting to offset recent jibes at his
‘moderate’ stance) said “Cheney screwed up big time” this morning.
Whether you like Cheney or not; whether you feel the Media is
composed of sharks who go for the jugular when they smell blood;
whether or not you think this whole incident (the accidental part) has
been blown out of proportion;
It’s not about that. This whole matter is a fishbowl view of the WH
and the way it operates. Simple.
The sky is pink. Water isn’t wet. The rain in Spain stays mainly in the mountains.
Stop and read it again, JD. That was Ari Fleischer who said that.
Probably seems amazing to you leftists. Republicans don’t actually get talking points, and tend to hold individual opinions.
Unlike the democrats who feel everyone has to “stay on message”, the message being defined by Soros’ media organs or Chairman Dean or perhapst the Workers Daily News.
You will often sees differences of opinions among the republicans, we welcome it….
are you for real…….?
I do not give a flying fuck who said it. Where is the right to know, or the duty to call the media, or the obligation to hold a press conference? Should they have called the media, or called local law enforcement after rendering aid and securing aid for the injured party?
Oh and by the way…all you leftists who are having a hard time with my suggestion that the democrats are all about talking points…
Isn’t it our fair host Ollie who was pressing everyone about staying “on point”? Or did I hallucinate it?
Funny, complete avoidance of the point though.
To be expected when you are caught with you blind hypocrisy hanging out there for all to see…
Nice debating tactic to drop right on into the ad hominem attack….
I am ever more convinced that “Dr” Pee is a parody poster. Fess up, is it you Quaker? Has any one ever seen “Dr” Pee and Frameone in the same room at the same time? He can’t be for real. Noone could be that stupid.
If anybody thinks a softball interview with Brit-in-the-GOP-tank-Hume isn’t laughable, you need to have your head examined and your medication increased. Pronto!!!
The polls are in freefall, the paranoia is building, and the Empire is crumbling.
Pass the Popcorn!!!
JD wrote:
I forgot. Wittington wasn’t wearing a blue dress. There’s nothing the public needs to know.
I don’t drink enough to make up the things that appear under peedro’s name.
Interesting quaker…
Do you think it would be different if a grand jury and a federal judge asked Cheney whether or not he shot this guy and his response was “I never knowingly aimed a shotgun at any other human being….”
Stand by. We may yet get a chance to find out.
Which of course doesn’t (as usual) answer the question.
Would that make it different and more clenis-like cracker?
Oh I won’t Cracker, since you morphed it into a Clenis discussion, you know, the way you are always accusing the republicans of doing.
Do you have to be a hypocrite to be a Quaker? Or is that just a little something extra you bring to that particular religious cult?
Dugger:
History will not even notice this accident. Like the Plame affair. There is absolutely no principle involved on the left. It is important only to the Bush hating rabble on the left.
Partially right, Dugger. The Bush administration will be famous in history as “The gang that couldn’t shoot straight” for far more important reasons. The shotgun incident will largely be forgotten. Sixty-eight years from now, however, a bright graduate student at Columbia will write a dissertation arguing that Cheney’s mishap was the straw that broke the camel’s back in utter collapse of public support for Bush over the course of 2006. Parts of the argument will appear in an op-ed column in the holographic version of the NYT. Sub-space radio talk shows will chatter about it for a while, then it will be forgotten once more.
Thus saith my magic eight ball. I think you need to polish your ouija board, Dugger.
Cult? That’s low.
Now you want to talk religion? Try to address the same subject two comments in a row, peed’.
Wilbur,
In your dreams, I know you see that happening. IMO, history will see Bush as a president with a good economy and a foreign policy dominated by Iraq. If Iraq turns out to be success, Bush may go down in history as one of the best Presdients. If Iraq is a failure, it will erode the good he will have gained via a strong economy. The ’scandals’ you guys keep trying to jump start are meaningless. None have real legs. Watergate and the Clinton impeachment are the only two scandals in quite a while with real historical legs.
Dugger
Like you say, Dugger, “in your dreams”.
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