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Name That Dude

Jesse Walker | 5.21.2003 9:07 AM

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Quick: Which one is Ari Fleischer, and which one is Baghdad Bob?

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NEXT: Name Game

Jesse Walker is books editor at Reason and the author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia.

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  1. geophile   22 years ago

    “Comments

    Brilliant!
    Posted by: Morgan at May 19, 2003 09:16 PM”

    What a friggin’ idiot. I got every one of them correct, it’s completely transparent who is saying what. I guess it doesn’t take much to impress the Leftbloggers. Just make some half-assed moral comparison between the Bush administration and some horrible dictator, and they eat out of your hand.

  2. Jaws   22 years ago

    “Just make some half-assed moral comparison between the Bush administration and some horrible dictator…”

    Nobody’s done that here. I think your rhetoric is on autopilot.

  3. RS   22 years ago

    Have do agree with geophile. Haven’t really followed Ari much but still got every question right.

  4. Steve   22 years ago

    What I found interesting was the comment that wherever Ari pops up when he leaves the administration, it MUST be a conflict of interest. So….you can’t go out and get a real job after serving a Republican Administration? I realize Democrats all go out and get jobs in think tanks and academia, but that’s because they don’t know what a “real” job is.

  5. Croesus   22 years ago

    Steve,

    Well, think tanks are really glorified lobbying firms. And most Democrats do head off to one legal firm, lobbying organization or another.

    Ari Fleischer does what all Press Secretaries do – he obfuscates when neccessary, and otherwise spins or simply gives vague answers the rest of the time. Anyone expecting anything other than “The President Is God Incarnate” from a Press Secretary is seriously deluded.

    Off Topic: Anyone also notice that Christine Todd Whitman quit today?

  6. david f   22 years ago

    yeah — it looks as though those who don’t want to be involved in the second term are moving on, and the team is getting reloaded…

    and even if ari did intend to cash in on his position, so what? william “crash test dummy” christopher did. and at least this way they’re actually contributing to the more-or-less private sector. that’s a helluva lot better than doing basically nothing productive in government.

  7. Chris Howell   22 years ago

    One of the best press secretaries I’ve ever seen, in terms of honesty and frankness, was NATO spokesman Jamie Shay. This guy made reporters feel good about asking questions while feeding them articulate and artful spin.

    As a reporter, who cares if the spokesman is telling the truth or not, as long as I get a good story out of it.

    Hearing about the pending retirement of Ari makes me all misty eyed for Nixon’s dark lord of PR, the late Ron Ziegler.

  8. Anonymous   22 years ago

    is ron ziegler that “that statement is no longer operative” guy?

  9. JDM   22 years ago

    What’s the point? It’s not like this is a list of lies.

    Which is Ari and which I Bob:

    1. I had a jelly donut this morning.
    2. This morning, for breakfast, I ate some toast.

    Who cares?

  10. Philosophy Student   22 years ago

    What is it about White House press secretaries that makes them burn out so fast?

    (Same thing happened under Clinton)

  11. Anonymous   22 years ago

    um, there’s a reason why they’re called “flaks.”

  12. Croesus   22 years ago

    Philosophy Student,

    Because it is a rather thankless job.

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