Word: fleischer
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...late March, when Iraqi Fedayeen were putting up surprising resistance to invading U.S. forces, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer faced an obvious question: was the fighting more fierce than the administration had anticipated? The answer was yes, of course; even commanders on the ground were saying so. But not Fleischer. He said the president believed that military progress was "ahead of schedule." Then he ridiculed reporters for demanding to know why, after less than a week of fighting, the war wasn't over yet - when no reporter had asked such a thing. What he never did was concede...
...unpleasant, and give them enough English to make the president look good. There is a tacit commerce in this: reporters and the press secretary agree on a set of facts and then quibble over their interpretation. In the process, the administration gets a hearing and the reporters get information. Fleischer did some spinning of the traditional sort, but his 28 months behind the podium are notable because he rewrote the rules of the exchange by virtually eliminating it. He shriveled the practice of imparting useful information and often strolled right by uncomfortable facts, always with a smile. In this...
...Fleischer, who announced last week that he would resign in July, must be judged a success for such fealty to his boss' wishes. Democrats express grudging admiration for the Bush team's remarkable ability to control the flow of information. "There is a fairly large group of Democrats who think there's a great lesson in this," says Joe Lockhart, who held Fleischer's job under President Clinton. But can the Fleischer Method be mimicked? Here are three topics that will test the truth-stretching skills of Ari's successor...
...RESIGNED. ARI FLEISCHER, 42, CHRISTIE TODD WHITMAN, 56, and TOMMY FRANKS, 57; from top Bush administration posts; in Washington. Fleischer will step down to work in the private sector after two-and-a-half years as press secretary, serving as the President's relentlessly on-message and sometimes unctuous spokesman on everything from the Enron scandals to the war in Iraq. Whitman, perennially sidelined chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, said she and her husband were tired of having a "commuter" marriage. Franks, the Army general who commanded U.S. forces during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, is retiring after...
...really want to unwind, do something more relaxing-like dismantle live nuclear weapons." Ari Fleischer, joking about why he is leaving his job as White House Press Secretary