Ari Fleischer today said he was a daily "human pinata" of the press corps. Here from the pages of Notable Quotables are some examples of how the liberal media obnoxiously questioned/assaulted Ari from 9/11 up to the first days of the Iraq War:
"Does the President believe that terrorists around the world get support, succor, funding in part because of Israeli policies of occupation, settlement, and reprisal and U.S. support for those policies? And as part of the campaign against terrorism, does the President believe those policies and U.S. support for them must change?"
"But in understanding the phenomenon of terrorism in order to combat it, are Israel’s policies part of the problem?"
"Have the events of September 11th brought more urgency or changed the U.S., the administration’s approach to the peace process in the Middle East?"
-- ABC’s Terry Moran questions to White House spokesman Ari Fleischer at an October 5, 2001 briefing."On the subject of the ‘responsible cooperator’ program that the Attorney General announced today, does it not make the administration uncomfortable to be promulgating a program that bears at least passing similarity to what totalitarian societies like East Germany and the Soviet Union used to do, which is to say to people: `Turn informant, and you’ll get rewarded?’"
– Question from Newsday’s Ken Fireman to White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, November 29, 2001."Ari, what makes the President – I’m taking note of his wide-swinging threats in speeches recently. What makes him think that he has the right to go into a sovereign country and bomb the people?"
– Hearst White House correspondent Helen Thomas questioning White House press secretary Ari Fleischer at December 5, 2001 briefing shown live on cable news channels."Ari, does the President think that the Palestinians have a right to resist 35 years of brutal military occupation and suppression?"
– Helen Thomas’s question to White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, April 1, 2002. [This is not an April Fool's joke.]ABC’s Terry Moran: "The House Majority Leader, Mr. Armey, suggested on an appearance on Hardball that it would be preferable for Israel to keep the West Bank and for the Palestinian people there to be transferred, ethnically cleansed. What does the President think of this? He didn’t use those words."
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer: "Yeah. Did the Majority Leader use those words?"
Moran: "He said that they should leave....That’s the way Milosevic said it, he never said ethnic cleansing either."
– Exchange at the White House press briefing on May 2, 2002."Can you assure the American people that this elevated threat alert is not part of the administration’s effort to convince people that the danger is such that military action against Iraq is necessary?"
– ABC’s Terry Moran to White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer at a September 10, 2002 briefing shown on CNN and FNC."You people are acting like this is a conversion to democracy by the sword. How can you - I mean, are you going to kill all these people, to get democracy [in Iraq]?"
– Hearst columnist Helen Thomas to Press Secretary Ari Fleischer at the October 2, 2002 White House briefing.Helen Thomas: "Does the President consider this [election outcome] a mandate to fulfill his agenda? Going to war with Iraq, privatizing Social Security, weakening the Civil Service Commission and so forth?"
Press Secretary Ari Fleischer: "Helen, you sound like a commercial that didn’t work."
– Exchange at White House press briefing on November 6, 2002.Helen Thomas: "Ari, you said that the President deplored the taking of innocent lives. Does that apply to all innocent lives in the world? And I have a follow-up....The follow-up is, why does he want to drop bombs on innocent Iraqis?"
Press Secretary Ari Fleischer: "...The President has made it very clear that he has no dispute with the people of Iraq. That’s why the American policy remains a policy of regime change. There’s no question the people of Iraq - "
Thomas: "That’s a decision for them to make, isn’t it? It’s their country."
Fleischer: "Helen, if you think that the people of Iraq are in a position to dictate who their dictator is, I don’t think that’s been what history has shown."
Thomas: "I think many countries don’t have, people don’t have the decision - including us."
– Exchange during a January 6, 2003 White House briefing shown on all three cable news networks."Secretary Rumsfeld...has dismissively referred to France and Germany as ‘Old Europe,’ and today, Secretary Powell, who warned France not to be ‘afraid’ of its responsibilities. Is that the rhetoric of a great power, and is that really the most effective way of building alliances?"
"Is it possible that the attitude which emanates not from the press, but from the administration, of ‘you’re with us or you’re against us,’ kind of dismissive superiority to some of the oldest American allies, is contributing to the problems in forging a common front against Iraq?"
– ABC White House correspondent Terry Moran’s questions to Ari Fleischer at the February 19, 2003 White House briefing shown live on the cable networks.ABC’s Terry Moran: "What is the administration’s assessment of the likelihood of the risk that Saddam Hussein – with his back up against the wall, with war seeming almost inevitable – will open up his arsenal of germs and chemicals and disperse them to terrorists?"
Press Secretary Ari Fleischer: "Does this mean that ABC News is acknowledging that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction?"
– Exchange at the February 12, 2003 White House briefing. [Moran would probably want this one back. But sometimes as a reporter, it's good to switch it up. For example, if Saddam had used bio-weapons, Fleischer would already be on record.]"Ari, the destruction of these Al-Samoud missiles now represents about ten percent, a little more, of their entire medium-range missile capability. That’s a piece of real, substantive disarmament under international supervision. But it’s not total disarmament. But you aren’t denying that that’s real disarmament?"
"But it is substantive, it is not just process, this is substance, this is real destruction of weapons."
"So, it’s the administration’s view that making war in Iraq now is preferable to any further piecemeal, substantive disarmament?"
– ABC’s Terry Moran to White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer at the March 3, 2003 briefing."While we’re on the disarmament process, Iraq is clearly starting to destroy some of its weapons, perhaps not as quickly as the administration would like. Clearly, it can’t all be done in one instant, in some Big Bang theory. So doesn’t this speak to the President’s well-known impatience, that his patience is running out, he’s not willing to give this process more time?"
– Los Angeles Times White House reporter Ed Chen to Fleischer later at the same briefing on March 3."The President has spoken many times of the special burden and the special responsibility he has as Commander-in-Chief of sending young Americans into harm’s way.... But have you heard him talk about this other responsibility which may weigh on him heavily today, and that is for the death of innocents, for Iraqi moms and dads and children who may, despite our best efforts, be killed?"
– ABC White House reporter Terry Moran’s question to Ari Fleischer during a televised briefing on March 21, 2003."Obviously, the Iraqi regime has mined this harbor and that is a wicked thing to do, but the coalition battle plan was to bypass Basra and leave the more than half million citizens there essentially to fend for themselves until we can get this aid flowing. It’s not that we can’t only get ships into Umm Qasr, it’s that we didn’t take Basra, which is now a scene of utter chaos and total unpredictability and there’s no telling when aid will flow there. Does the administration take any responsibility for the plight of the people in Basra?"
– Moran’s question to Fleischer at the March 25, 2003 White House briefing."Given that level of fight that has been seen in the Iraqis...does the President have any judgment as to whether these aren’t just soldiers who are being terrorized to fight, and not just essentially gangsters who are loyal to Saddam, but these are Iraqis who believe they are acting as patriots defending their country from an invasion?"
– ABC’s Terry Moran questioning White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer at a televised briefing, March 28, 2003.
