“How dare you?” Fleischer and Matthews hammer each other over Bush, Iraq (video)

hotair.com ^ | March 11, 2009 | Allahpundit

[Free ThinkerNY]

The pretext for this moldy talking-points rehash is today’s Politico piece on the efforts of Bush loyalists like Fleischer to rehabilitate Dubya’s legacy. Nothing here you haven’t heard several thousand times before on Hardball, but with Glenn Beck drubbing MSNBC even more than usual at 5 p.m., Matthews has to do something to goose the ratings. So here’s the inevitable showdown, which turns entertainingly nasty about four minutes in when Chris dumps on Bush’s counterterror legacy and Ari’s patience goes up in smoke. Twelve minutes of simmering hostility later, Matthews finally gets to deliver this summa on preemptive war on behalf of his pal “Barack”:

And I am glad that we no longer have an administration that uses that kind of argument… And the American people are happier, too. They are, I can assure you. We don’t like that thinking anymore in this country.

[jimfree]

And the American people are happier, too. They are, I can assure you. We don’t like that thinking anymore in this country.

[Eagle Forgotten]

Fleischer loses credibility when he won’t concede even obvious points. Was the economy in better shape when Bush left office than at the start of his administration? No, of course it wasn’t. He could make some points about how much of that was or wasn’t Bush’s fault, but instead he tried to dodge the issue.

[musicbymuzak]

happy that gummint is trying to make us a bunch of commies? no way...

[Mr. Mojo]

"And the American people are happier, too. They are, I can assure you."

This fruitcake Matthews gets loonier by the minute.

[True Republican Patriot]

Prissy Chrissy makes a Septic System Leach Field Look Like The Taj Mahal!

[keepitreal]

Yep. We’re all happier as we watch our retirements go down the drain, terrorists released, and our country in hock for the next 100 years. Scotch is a good thing.

[patriot preacher]

Chris Matthews is SUCH a jerk.

[Big_Monkey]

"Fleischer loses credibility when he won’t concede even obvious points.

I understand your point, and you're probably right. But, when's the last time you heard a liberal concede any points?

The last eight years, all we have seen are Republicans conceding points. John McCain ran an entire campaign conceding points to the opposition. I think it's high time conservatives and Republicans start fighting back fiercely, forcefully and unapologetically.

[ElayneJ]

I remember at one time I liked Matthews, but looking at this clip I can’t begin to remember why. He’s really suffered from BDS I guess. But Ari looked like a rock star -calm and cool and calling out Matthews.

I wonder about the yellow cake that was shipped to Canada, though. Isn’t that proof of the WMD and why doesn’t anyone ever mention that?

[Carley]

I watched that segment with Ari Fleischer and was in absolute shock at Matthews comments. What a despicable low life piece of garbage.

Matthews spewed lies throughout the entire conversation.

[El Cid]

Was the economy in better shape when Bush left office than at the start of his administration? No, of course it wasn’t.

I would not concede this point. Bush inherited an economy that had just seen the implosion of the dot-com bubble - overlaid on top of the onset of a cyclical recession. And it was a particularly nasty recession because many of the Mfg jobs had shifted overseas in the preceding years -- but this shift wasn't as apparent as the dot-com companies were picking up the slack as that phantom economy was 'booming'. When the dot-com balloon popped - it had a double whammy. The dot-com economy was an illusion - and many of the Mfg jobs no longer existed. He also inherited the financial disasters that thrived while cooking their books during the Clinton years: Enron, Worldcom, Global Crossing, and the like - which when they imploded they also took out a lot of folks investments.

That said, Incoming President Bush did have one very large advantage over Outgoing President Bush -- in his early years he was able to deal with a relatively sane Congress.

[maggief]

Why would Ari agree to face time with Chrissy in the first place?

[Laverne]

Ari owned matthews.

I think all republicans should just stop going on MSNBC; they don’t get a fair hearing there anyway, and then MSNBC edits their clips to push a different message than the one intended.

MSNBC is a clown station run by clymers.

Matthews and Olbermann should be boycotted, not watched, not discussed....they should just fade away completely.

[LibLieSlayer]

What would playing into dim characterizations do for him on pmsnbc? Do you think that their core audience would be convinced of anything he had to say in the first place. They think every word is a lie, so they would just think he was lying again. Best to kick the statist authoritarians in the nards as often as possible and always advance with attack... never hold ground and never retreat... always advance in attack. We must defeat this enemy once and for all time. We must discredit their entire way of life... we must defeat and demoralize them into submission. America's future depends on it and the go along to get along repubic party has tried everything non confrontational, staying above the fray, taking the high road type of responses to the ALL OUT WAR that the dims have been waging against Conservatism. Republicans have failed miserably and the time for action is short.

LLS

[BARLF]

Mercy, I listened to the video, now my head hurts. How can anyone stand a daily dose of this puke, Chris Matthews?

[ru4liberty]

Look! No Chrissy and Slobbermann’s in the basement. It’s just a matter of time until they do themselves in.

CABLE NEWS RACE
TUES., MARCH 10, 2009

FOXNEWS O’REILLY 3,212,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,376,000
FOXNEWS BECK 2,331,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,274,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 2,044,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 1,965,000
CNN COOPER 1,214,000
CNN KING 1,185,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,041,000
CNNHN GRACE 986,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 928,000

(Hi, BGF!)

[RLegacy]

So ... 15 people saw the show? Matthews is irrelevant.

[what's up]

Democrats are terrified that the wall of lies they built to isolate Bush from the public will be blasted through.

They will fight tooth and nail to keep the truth from getting through because the lies are the only thing that won them office. Thus hysterical fits will be the norm if Repubs start to seem to make sense about what happened.

[Castigar]

Ari remained calm and kicked Chrisy’s butt!

Go Ari!