Free Republic

It's bad for our democracy to exempt half the country.If you thought Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme was bad, wait until you hear about the inverted pyramid scheme the federal government is working on. While Mr. Madoff preyed on people who trusted him with their money, the federal government has everyone's money, and the implications of its actions are worse. Picture an upside-down pyramid with its narrow tip at the bottom and its base on top. The only way the pyramid can stand is by spinning fast enough or by having a wide enough tip so it won't fall down. The...

Below are some alarming tax numbers from Ari Fleischer, a former press secretary in the Bush administration, as printed in the Wall Street Journal. Fleischer notes that the highest-earning 10% of the country already pays almost 73% of U.S. income taxes. The number of Americans who pay no tax is over 40% and heading for 50%. When that happens, there will be a permanent, built-in majority opposed to any changes that require more taxes, other than further increases on the top earners. The same permanent majority can be expected to favour more and more public spending, since they won't have...

[Great 16:33 minute video where Ari Fleischer ABSOLUTELY PUMMELS Chris Matthews] Chris Matthews misunderestimated former Bush press secretary Ari Fleisher last night on “Hardball.” When the MSNBC host attacked, Fleischer gave him a lesson in verbal pugalistics. The “Hardball” host had barely said hello when he went on the attack. “What brings you back?,” Matthews challenged. “Is this the return from Elba? Is this the 100 days of Napoleon`s return from Crawford? What is going on with this network of former Bushies — current Bushies, I should say — singing the old song?” “Well, Chris,” Fleischer responded coolly, “I’m here...

You called Scott McClellan last night. What did you ask him? ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER W.H. PRESS SECRETARY: Well, I did. Actually it was before the story broke about the book. So, it was a social call and Scott brought up the book. We talked about it and he told me he thought it was going to be an honest, brutal, I mean honest, blunt book — he didn't say brutal. And I'm not sure I thought it was going to be as bad as it sounds like it is. HEMMER: What do you mean? FLEISCHER: From what I'm hearing from...

I haven't seen Chris Matthews this excited since a Barack Obama speech sent that special sensation skyward. The Hardball host is in an absolute frenzy over Scott McClellan's allegations. So much so that guests on this evening's show are having a hard time expressing themselves as Matthews expounds at length. Ari Fleischer finally called Chris on it. And while David Gregory didn't express his ire in words, he made a facial expression that left little doubt as to his annoyance at being cut off in mid-sentence. The screencap shows Gregory's grimace. But be sure to view the video here to...

One of President Bush's former White House spokesmen told a gathering of young Jewish activists here that he was deeply troubled by Barack Obama's relationship with his pastor. Several national media outlets have aired video clips of inflammatory remarks made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the recently retired pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ, an Afrocentric church on Chicago's South Side, where Obama has been a member since the early 1990s. Obama, a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, has denounced Wright's harsh condemnations of American policy, which include an assertion that the United States brought...

Ari Fleischer was at the debate last night and will be on the Dennis Prager show now to discuss it.

The day after the Senate voted to condemn MoveOn.org for its full-page New York Times ad attacking Army Gen. David Petraeus, a coalition of conservative organizations met to plot their next move. Brad Blakeman, head of the new group Freedom’s Watch, proposed another full-page ad in the paper of record. But he suggested taking on a slightly less risky target than an active four-star general: the Iranian president. “Ahmadinejad Is a Terrorist,” blared the resulting creation. It was turned around quickly, landing in reporters’ in-boxes the evening of Friday, Sept. 21 — a good way to get it ignored. Still,...

The press briefings of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are widely acknowledged to be the best show on television, and watching him perform in person is probably even more entertaining. By contrast, it must be hell to be trapped in the White House briefing room with Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. Reading the transcripts of Fleischer's performances on the Web, though, is fascinating. In a review last week of the various war briefers, my colleague David Plotz gave short shrift to Fleischer-dismissing him as an evasive bore. This doesn't give Fleischer nearly enough credit: He is a great evasive bore. There's a ...

The television ads launched this week by a new advocacy group called Freedom's Watch all have different storytellers tapping into the same narrative vein. There's the man who lost both legs in Fallujah last December saying if we pull out now "everything I've given and sacrificed will mean nothing." Another features a woman who says she lost two family members to al-Qaeda -- her uncle on 9/11 and her husband who died fighting in Iraq -- adding that should the United States pull its troops out now "it will mean more attacks in America." ............................................... As the ghost of Obi-Wan...

Pro-Bush group spends $15M defending war By: Mike Allen Aug 22, 2007 07:29 AM EST A new group, Freedom’s Watch, is launching Wednesday with a $15 million, five-week campaign of TV, radio and Web ads featuring military veterans that is aimed at retaining support in Congress for President Bush’s “surge” policy on Iraq. "For those who believe in peace through strength, the cavalry is coming," said former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, who is a founding board member of the group. The big ad buy, funded by high-profile Republicans who were aides and supporters of President Bush, reflects a...

IF, I say IF, Libby is acquitted, Special Counsel Fitzgerald will be re-titled Special Clownshow Fitzgerald. Although Sunday afternoon seems a bit early for speculating on *why* Fitzgerald blew his case, (only partly because it is really Thursday, and mainly because the verdict is not in yet), let me offer this as Fitzgerald's Biggest Blunder: Playing eight hours of Libby tapes from his grand jury testimony. Why? Assuming the jurors are human, after eight hours they were probably reeling, and may be quite sympathetic to the notion that Libby was reeling too. Too bad Fitzgerald didn't have video of Libby...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer leaked the identity of a CIA operative to Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus during a 2003 phone call, Pincus testified Monday as the first defense witness in the CIA leak trial. Pincus was one of the first reporters to learn the identity of Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador and prominent Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson. Pincus said he learned her identity July 12, 2003 but did not immediately write about it. Plame was outed by syndicated columnist Robert Novak two days later. Pincus testified on behalf of Vice...

Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says Lewis Libby told him over lunch that the wife of a prominent war critic worked at the CIA. The date of their lunch, July 7, 2003, is at the heart of the obstruction and perjury case against Libby. That's because it is several days before Libby says he learned from a reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. Fleischer also testified that Libby told him it was "hush-hush." He testified under an immunity deal he reached with prosecutors. Fleischer sought the deal because he discussed Plame with reporters. Libby's attorneys plan to...

President Bush's ex-spokesman invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked in front of a grand jury about the illegal outing of spy Valerie Plame, prosecutors revealed this week. Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer sought and received immunity from prosecution for unmasking the secret agent. Armed with this immunity, Fleischer is now expected to testify Monday in the perjury trial of Lewis (Scooter) Libby. Fleischer is expected to tell the court that Libby, formerly Vice President Cheney's top adviser, told him on July 7, 2003, that "he had some information that was hush-hush," said special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. What was hush-hush...

Current Weather Recent Editions - Mon. | Tue. | Wed. | Thu. | Fri. January 26, 2007 edition Search Archives: Advertise Subscribe Contact Us Blogs Email Alerts Photo Gallery Home New York National Foreign Editorial/Opinion Business ARTS+ Food & Drink Sports Calendar Style Travel Obituaries Comment Digg del.icio.us Email Print LIbby Wants Details on Fleisher's Deal By MATT APUZZO Associated Press January 26, 2007 posted 4:49 pm EST A D V E R T I S E M E N T A D V E R T I S E M E N T WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorneys for former...

The Westchester-county-based 24th District could be a focus of national attention if one Republican in particular makes the race: Ari Fleischer, one-time press secretary to George W. Bush, left the White House in 2003 and returned to his home county to do communications consulting (at one point, he advised major league baseball teams on public relations matters), write his memoir of the Bush White House and take on speaking engagements and TV commentary. Friends of Fleischer note that the Westchester native has done just about everything congressional—managed campaigns, worked as a press secretary in both houses of Congress and served...

August 21, 2006   The Honorable Jimmy Carter The Carter Center 453 Freedom Parkway Atlanta, Georgia 30307 Dear Mr. President: I just read the transcript of your interview with the German magazine, Der Spiegel, in which you accuse Israel of launching an “unjustified attack on Lebanon.”   Even after the interviewer reminded you that Israel was the first to get attacked, you charged Israel with lacking “any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon.” As someone who served in the White House as a spokesman for a President, I am reluctant to criticize...

The Washington press corps -- working in an industry that's been transformed by talk radio, 24-hour cable news and the Internet -- still views the White House briefing room as it was back in the 1950s -- or the '60s, '70s, '80s or even early '90s. Despite dramatic changes forged by live coverage and instant analysis, the press fondly adheres to the notion that the briefing can be conducted the way it used to be. But as Tony Snow, the new White House press secretary, will soon discover, the briefing is no longer a briefing, it's a TV show. Gone...

Based on suggestions from the breaking post about Scott McClellan’s resignation, here are some auditions of the nominees so far: Dennis Miller “President Bush and China’s President Hu Jintao met today over a passive aggressive plate of low fat Chinese chicken salad and Asian style Rice-a-roni. Hats off to the chefs down in White House kitchen for working so hard to make our foreign friends feel at home. I heard the last time Vincente Fox was here the Minutemen infiltrated the shmorg line and built a wall along the salsa/guacamole border with 700 beef enchiladas. And by the way, darn...

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." But Fleischer also took a jab at the reporting frenzy surrounding the story, saying most Americans are not...

"As ABC's White House Correspondent, New Nightline Anchor Terry Moran Pushed a Liberal Agenda" Below is the text of a Media Reality Check, put together by the MRC's Rich Noyes, which was distributed by fax this afternoon. Moran: We're Now World's Bad Guys "Mr. President, recently Amnesty International said you have established, quote, ‘a new gulag of prisons around the world beyond the reach of the law and decency.' I'd like your reaction to that, and also your assessment of how it came to this, that that is a view not just held by extremists and anti-Americans, but by groups...

Sheboygan, WI - President Bush's former press secretary told delegates at the state Republican convention that demographics are shifting an ever-growing number of voters into the Republican column. Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary for Bush until July 2003, said that with more people moving to the southern and western parts of the country, Rust Belt states in the Northeast - where Democrats have typically been strong - are losing voters. "The country is increasingly moving in our direction, and it's our golden opportunity to keep that movement going and to get things done," Fleischer told the audience of about...

The current Bush administration has made no secret of its wariness of - and disdain for - the press. In a 2003 interview with Brit Hume of Fox News, the president said he glances at newspaper headlines "just to get kind of a flavor" but rarely reads the stories. "The best way to get the news is from objective sources," he went on. "And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world." His chief of staff, Andrew Card, was later quoted in The New Yorker arguing that the press...

Day after day, Ari Fleischer stood at the White House podium and insisted the administration knew that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons. Is he embarrassed about that? "Taking Heat," Ari Fleischer's book about his tenure as White House press secretary, hits stores today. "I said what the government was thinking at the time," says the former presidential press secretary. "I accurately articulated what we believed." But since that turned out to be untrue, wasn't his own credibility tarnished? "Everyone recognizes the press secretary is not the finder of facts." Fleischer's book, "Taking Heat," is out today, and while...

Ari Fleischer Won't Throw the Book at Bush • Now here's a shocker: Don't expect to read anything critical of President Bush in former White House spinner Ari Fleischer's new memoir, "Taking Heat." Fleischer had "several" policy disagreements with Bush, he says in an interview in the March issue of GQ, but won't talk about them or cite any mistakes his boss might have made: "I believe in the man. I believe in his policies," he says. "I choose not to be a critic." Then again, he also compliments Hillary Clinton as a "talented cookie," saying she could clinch her...

It's always a sad, and sometimes an uncomfortable thing to see someone who was once at the pinnacle of their game try to remain long after their days at the top have gone. Show me someone who doesn't wince when they see an over-the-hill Hollywood elite trying to recapture their glory days, dozens of facelifts stretching their skin over their skull like plastic wrap on a Tupperware container, and I will show you someone who is truly desensitized to their surroundings. Such is the case with White House correspondent Helen Thomas. Recently, in an impromptu interview with a NewsMax correspondent,...

If the word is put out that former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer is in town to speak at a local synagogue about Israel and President Bush, will he be able to fill the room? In Beverly Hills? Yes. Somewhere around 700 Jews showed up to hear Ari tonight. It was a mixed crowd, really mixed, with college age guys, young professionals, many Holocaust survivors, and the middle age set. I really looked around. These are people that none of the polls are identifying. Frankly, I think the polls about "Jewish voters" are frauds. How do they know who...

<p>March 25, 2004 -- THEY act pretty smart when they're on TV, but now, 15 personalities from the worlds of media and politics will get a chance to prove how smart they really are on "Jeopardy!" The brainy quiz show's second-ever "Jeopardy! Power Players" edition (the last one was in 1997) is scheduled to tape a week from Saturday at Washington's DAR Constitution Hall, hosted by Alex Trebek.</p>

Russert, Franken to Appear on 'Jeopardy' Wed Mar 24, 9:48 AM ET Add Entertainment - AP to My Yahoo! By The Associated Press NEW YORK - Think folks like Tim Russert, Tavis Smiley, Anderson Cooper, Ari Fleischer, Al Franken and Bob Woodward are smart? They'll have a chance to prove it. They're among 15 "power players" signed up to play "Jeopardy!" in a special weeklong edition of the game that will be broadcast in May, it was announced Monday. The game show will be in Washington to tape the segments early next month. Each contestant will be playing for charity...

To the Editor: In "Lifting the Shroud" (column, March 23), Paul Krugman alleges that at my White House press briefing on Sept. 26, 2001, I "ominously warned" Americans to "watch what they say, watch what they do." He accuses me of telling citizens "to accept the administration's version of events, not ask awkward questions." At that briefing two weeks after Sept. 11, I was asked about a racist comment made by a Republican congressman from Louisiana who said that if he saw a Sikh-American with a towel wrapped around his head, he would tell the Sikh to get out of...

Ari Fleischer just signed a reported $500,000 deal to write a book about his time as President Bush's press secretary. But don't look for any dirt about what goes on behind the West Wing doors. "I'm not a kiss-and-tell kind of guy," Fleischer said Wednesday before an afternoon speech at the Adam's Mark Hotel for WBEN radio's Power Lunch speakers series. "This book is going to be about my time in the White House and what I saw in the Oval Office." A big part of the book will tell "what it was like to work with the White House...

Ask reporters here what they think of Scott McClellan, the soft-spoken Texan named last month to fill Ari Fleischer's job as White House press secretary, and one hears descriptions like "teddy bear" and "sweetie." The warm reaction contrasts sharply from their opinions of Fleischer, the combative New Yorker who seemed to revel in his regularly televised jousting with reporters - some of whom to this day cannot speak civilly about him. McClellan, building on the store of good will he amassed as Fleischer's more accommodating deputy, has emerged in his first few weeks as a compassionate conservative answer to Fleischer....

(CBS) -- Ari Fleischer recently left his post as President Bush's press secretary. I started wondering what it might be like if he went on a well-deserved vacation and ran into another person who had had a similar job. FADE IN: Ari is having a sandwich in a coffee shop in Las Vegas. Sitting next to him is the former Iraqi Minister of Information, Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf — also known as Baghdad Bob. ARI FLEISHER: I can't believe you spent the whole day out at the pool. It's 117 degrees out there. BAGHDAD BOB: But it's dry heat. Besides, I'm...

<p>Nobles: Ari Fleischer, for cool service as a spokesman in extraordinary times. Imagine that each day you are on the job, you are asked scores of probing, insulting, and occasionally even intelligent questions over a vast array of complicated, controversial policies &#8212; many of which you are only marginally familiar with &#8212; by a pack of reporters whose job is, at least in part, to make you look bad. You aren't allowed to give your opinion on any of it, and if you stumble, or stammer, or even look slightly rattled, you've made the wrong sort of news. Imagine that each day on the job, Helen Thomas gets a whack at you, and if you flinch, the President himself will take you to the woodshed.</p>

Just a heads up: Ari Fleischer has been on Letterman and is taking up most of the show. He is doing just INCREDIBLY. He whipped out so many facts about the Niger matter in 30 seconds he just blew me away (and Letterman). About the only stuff I can remember is that he said Iraq did get uranium from Niger in the 80's and did have chemical and biological weapons and was seeking a nuclear program, thus making this one flap not a big deal. He also said the press is what keeps the story going. He got a lot...

Today is Ari Fleischer's last day as the White House press secretary. After watching him in action for years briefing a White House press corps that is both very hungry for any new information and as a whole, instinctively opposed to the administration's generally conservative thrust (meaning new and damaging information is the best scoop), it would be appropriate to joke that now he can try a less stressful job, like deactivating mines. When he announced he was stepping down weeks ago, reporters remembered his tenure by replaying his alleged gaffes. This is, to use an analogy from Ari's beloved...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Monday dismissed as a "bunch of bull" charges that President Bush used disputed intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq and said there was no need to delve further into the matter, which Democrats want investigated. "As far as the president's concerned, he's moved on. ... I think the bottom has been gotten to," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said of a disputed statement in the president's State of the Union address that Iraq sought to buy uranium from Africa for its alleged nuclear weapons program. "This revisionist notion that somehow this is...

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. (AP) - White House press secretary Ari Fleischer thought he was only posing for pictures when he was brought to the nose of Air Force One after President Bush returned from a trip to Africa on Saturday. What he didn't know was that his staff had enlisted a base fire engine to help mark the end of Fleischer's 2 1/2-year tenure as Bush's chief spokesman. He quickly realized what was up when the mist from the engine's hose blew his way. Fleischer, who by this time had exchanged his navy blue business suit for a...

Ari Fleischer By Adam Schefter Post Sports Writer Sunday, July 13, 2003 - On the day he announced he was leaving his job as White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer said he was "going to do something more relaxing - like dismantle live nuclear weapons." Well, Monday he can start dismantling those weapons, along with his West Wing office. This week, Fleischer will be vacating the office he has held since President Bush's election, and he will be leaving it with the legacy of a right-winger and a make-believe center fielder.Adam Schefter: How did you come to use the alias...

Ari Fleischer Will Be Missed As Sparring Partner Press Secretary, Retiring For Personal Reasons, Served President Well POSTED: 6:42 p.m. EDT July 9, 2003 WASHINGTON -- "I'm leaving the White House, but I'm not leaving President Bush," says press secretary Ari Fleischer. Fleischer, on a final trip with the president in Africa, said in a farewell interview that he would work in the Bush reelection campaign wherever he is needed. Fleischer, who has taken his share of potshots at the French, recently joked about the fact that his last day in the White House will be Monday, July 14, "Bastille...

I confess, I did ask Ari some tough questions -- questions I would have much preferred to ask the president if he had been accessible, such as: "Why would we kill thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians to take out one man?" I believe that it is important to pin down official government spokesman and go beyond their spin to better understand momentous White House moves. It's the job of the press to seek answers and demand accountability from our elected officials on a daily basis. I like to think we do that as surrogates for all of the American people....

NEW YORK -- Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) grew up in Pound Ridge, N.Y., where being middle class means you have only a couple of horses, and he would like to go back there. But you can't make it in that part of Westchester County on the salary of a mere press secretary to the president of the United States. One hundred and forty thousand dollars a year gets you only about as far as White Plains. So, as he announced that his heart told him it was time to leave President Bush (news - web sites) and a...

Ari Fleischer Served His Boss Well Spokesman Stuck With President Through Gaffes, Disagreements POSTED: 3:30 p.m. EDT May 21, 2003 WASHINGTON -- White House spokesman Ari Fleischer is quitting the second toughest job in the White House. From President George W. Bush's standpoint he served his master very well, hewing to the White House party line and loyally delivering the spin of the day. But great press secretaries also wear another hat, which requires them to challenge White House insiders to provide more information for the public. Given the president's loyalty demands, I doubt that Fleischer would have kept the...

Retiring White House press secretaries have a long history of checking out to cash in Just hours after White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer announced Monday that he will leave his job in July, the press-office fax machine was humming with queries from book publishers and speaking bureaus. FOR NOW, Fleischer hasn’t committed to anything. “If I can’t have my first choice, playing short stop for the Yankees, then I’ll take my second: catching up on my sleep,” he jokes. Whatever he chooses, he’s bound to make more money. His current job pays $145,000 a year; Fleischer will soon be...

On Fox News (during an interview with Shep), Ari just said he wants to move back to his home state of New York. wOOhOO!!! Let's hope Ari runs against Hillary! (Or should he run sooner?) Anyone else for Ari for Senate?

WND AT THE WHITE HOUSE Islamic Jihad terrorists not true Muslims? Fleischer questioned about Bush's view on religion of bombers Posted: May 20, 2003 5:00 p.m. Eastern Editor's note: Each week, WorldNetDaily White House correspondent Les Kinsolving asks the tough questions no one else will ask. And each week, WorldNetDaily brings you the transcripts of those dialogues with the president and his spokesman. If you'd like to suggest a question for the White House, submit it to WorldNetDaily's exclusive interactive forum MR. PRESIDENT! By Les Kinsolving © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com At today's White House news briefing, WND asked presidential press secretary...

Ari Fleischer, the public face of the White House through September 11, Afghanistan, and Iraq and perhaps the most visible Jewish person on Earth announced his resignation on Monday. ....snip....... Fleischer, 42, informed President George W. Bush of his decision on Friday, and he responded by kissing Fleischer on the forehead. "He's a very caring person," Fleischer said when asked about the kiss.

Ari Fleischer, the public face of the White House through September 11, Afghanistan, and Iraq and perhaps the most visible Jewish person on Earth announced his resignation on Monday. He is expected to leave in July and most likely be replaced by his deputy, Scott McClellan, though no announcement on a successor has been made. Fleischer, 42, informed President George W. Bush of his decision on Friday, and Bush responded by kissing Fleischer on the forehead. "He's a very caring person," Fleischer said when asked about the kiss. Fleischer, who married in November, told reporters he plans to spend the...

Bush and Blair's public spokesmen quit their posts on the same day By Andrew Grice and Andrew Buncombe in Washington 20 May 2003 It could have been an episode from The West Wing called "Two Spin Doctors": the public spokesmen for George Bush and Tony Blair both announced yesterday that they were standing down. Excitable journalists at Westminster sensed an obvious explanation. Was Godric Smith, the Prime Minister's official spokesman, leaving Downing Street to replace Ari Fleischer, who is to quit the same post at the White House? Alas, the script was too good to be true. Although Bill Clinton...