Matthews Smacks Down Fleischer Over Bush Keeping Us Safe From Attacks Nonsense
By Heather Thursday Mar 12, 2009 6:00am
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Matthews smacks down Ari Fleischer who's been out on a Bush redemption media blitz of late for his Bush kept us safe from a terrorist attack nonsense. He obviously got under Fleischer's skin since Fleischer got pretty snitty with him for daring to challenge his talking points.
Matthews did a pretty good job here but as friend of the site and fellow contributor Jon Perr pointed out to us Matthews has disappointed in the past and is sure to continue to in the future.
For all his ferocity towards Fleischer today and his claim about the Bush White House in 2007 that “they won’t silence me,” Chris Matthews spent an awful long time calling George W. Bush and his friends, “good guys.”
As Jon noted at Perrspectives back in 2007 Chris Matthews: Bush White House "Good Guys" Won't Silence Me:
But what we do know is that Chris Matthews likes George W. Bush and the "good guys" of his White House - a lot. They may be, Matthews now suggests, thugs and criminals, but they are thugs and criminals you want to drink a beer with all the same:
"I thought in listening to the president, I was listening to one of the great neoconservative minds. We were given a rare opportunity to hear the real philosophy of this administration with regard to the war in Iraq." (August 9, 2007)
"I like him. Everybody sort of likes the president, except for the real whack-jobs, maybe on the left." (November 28, 2005)
"Sometimes it glimmers with this man, our president, that kind of sunny nobility." (October 25, 2005)
"We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical." (May 1, 2003)
"For example, George Allen is a lot like George Bush. He's friendly. He's a jock in a way. He's happy go lucky. He's a good guy to hang out with, kicks back." (May 24, 2006)
"They're very adept politically, this White House. And whatever you think of Karl Rove, he is good and he is tough." (October 29, 2004)
"Tony [Snow] has no regrets, nor do any of us for being his friend. Good guy, he has been, he is, and he will be." (September 4, 2007)
"And as we sign off today, it was the last day on the job for White House press secretary, the very likable, the very good guy, Tony Snow." (September 17, 2007)
"Tom DeLay, you are not in this buisness for the money. You live modestly. You commute back and forth from Washington to Houston, Texas. Why? What drives you every day?" (January 24, 2006)
"We'll be right back with House Majority Leader John Boehner. You can see this man's greatness." (March 6, 2006)
"And Republican Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico - a good guy, by the way - intends to retire from the Senate when his term ends next year." (October 3, 2007)
"I think you beat a good guy [Jim Talent]. I looked at all the Republican candidates running for election in tough elections. I thought he was probably the best of them." To Missouri Senator-elect Claire McCaskill, (November 28, 2006)
"Mike DeWine, a good guy." (February 9, 2007)
"Chris Shays, actually a good guy, we'll see how he deals with this thing." (August 28, 2006)
So today we get a smackdown from Matthews. We'll see what tomorrow brings. If anyone would like to watch the entire segment instead of my mash up my friend CSPANJunkie has it up in two parts.
Part 1
Part 2
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Nothing pisses me off quite as much as that bit at the end. Sneaky little bugger still tries to tie Saddam to 9/11, with his "after September 11th how could we take a chance that Saddam would not strike again." What a load of shit... Also I'm tired of hearing people go unchallenged with the "the whole world thought Saddam had wmd" bs. Scott Ritter who was chief weapons inspector for the UN from 91-98 was arguing loudly to anyone who would give him a microphone in 2003 (and before then) that Saddam had no wmds and no functioning weapons program. Again remember that desire to posses these weapons does not constitute a threat. A credible threat requires ability as well as desire. Fore more Scott Ritter info the wikipedia page on him is pretty good. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ritter
I couldn't believe it when he said it - I literally almost fell out of my chair. While even Bush has since admitted that there was no link between Iraq and 9/11, these yo-yos continue to make the point, content in the fact that most Americans are ignorant of the actual circumstances and comforted by the lies of Fleischer, et al.
No offense to used car salesmen but what they often attempt to do is sell a hunk of pure "junk" to some unsuspecting buyer.
Ari Fleisher's total bullshit "rant" yesterday on Hardball was nothing short of an expose of an "out of ideas" bloviating blowfish trying to SPIN the Bush legacy - and, IT DIDN'T WORK.
Matthews is priceless in his covert manipulation of people's careers and legacies. He permitted Bachman Overdrive to "out herself" and become the poster gal for ignorance - now he's permitted Ari to hang himself.
**This slick, silver tongued propagandist even attempted to tie Hussein to 911 in a very sleazy underhanded way - as though some of us would not notice.
Nice try, Sleazebucket Fleisher! Nice try and "thanks for playing". Soon Ari Fleisher will be on trial for intentionally lying to the american people about WMD, too.
Don't you mean a used condom salesman.......
Absolutely!
* Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death.
** Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. Hermann Georing
*** The efficiency of the truly national leader consists primarily in preventing the division of the attention of a people, and always in concentrating it on a single enemy.
*** What luck for the rulers that men do not think.
**** The great masses of the people ... will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one. (THEORY Being: that people themselves would be so embarrassed to lie such big lies, therefore they tend to believe it when someone else says things over and over and think that it must be true)
MY QUOTE OF THE DAY: For some History is Repeated, and for others History is Learned, but for the Cruel ones, it is learned and repeated.
Keep up the good work Chris, way to stick to your guns.....
Snake Oil salesman. He would have made a good living in the 1800's hawking his shit.
to the contrary and the needless death and destruction caused by his and others' past lies is simply immoral, if there is such a thing anymore.
He DID sneak that in and Chris didn't call him on it. Chris also didn't say anything about Al Queda NOT being in Iraq before we went there. Ari is a lying sack. Sorry buddy, can't change history.
"how could we take a chance that Saddam would not strike again"
I noticed that, too - as soon as I heard the word "again" my hand snapped up and I said "Hold it!" To no real purpose, of course, except to express a gut reaction.
"the whole world thought Saddam had wmd" bs
Generally ignored in that bs is that at least some of the countries that get mentioned as believing Saddam had WMDs believed it because that's what we told them.
Beyond that, Scott Ritter was not the only one who knew better; Hans Blix, for example, also did and was roundly mocked for it. I did too, as seen in an unpublished op-ed from March 6, 2003 that began this way:
There's also another point raised by the timing of that op-ed, one rarely raised: In terms of the war on Iraq, the issue is not whether or not the US or anyone else suspected or believed in the fall of 2002 that Saddam Hussein had WMDs. The issue is whether they continued to maintain that position into March 2003, despite months of on-site inspections bolstered by "the best intelligence" the US could offer the inspectors, all of which turned up for all practical purposes zilch.
You could even stipulate (despite the questions and the manipulation of intelligence) that in the fall of 2002 the Bush administration and members of Congress honestly believed Saddam had WMDs and you could still ask them "Why did you continue to argue that after it had been conclusively proved wrong?"
I wish someone would ask that but I know none of them will.
This asshat revisionist is doing his best to keep that legacy intact regardless of how many blatant bullshit lies he has to spew.
Gawd, what a fucking jerk!
What's even worse is that the media keeps putting a microphone and camera in this fucker's stupid, lying, disillusioned and, yes, disingenuous, face.
I guess they had tons of pancake make-up on this butt-ugly moron when he was front and center? Frankly, he was so objectionable to me that I can't even remember him being press secretary so that's what kind of impression he made on me.
Ari Fleisher needs a new make-up artist. His face is extremely difficult to watch for more than 10 seconds. That along with a hefty dose of Acnomel......:)
I don't know who's worse. Fleischer or Chertoff.
Neocon SCUM. F##king LIAR.
Tweety birds tend to fly with the prevailing winds.
tweety better not get near rash limpballs after he has lunch again.
Is it possible he's trying to play Devil's Advocate?
Is always playing the Debbils advocate, Remember what he did during the Clinton saga? He wanted the Pres. cut and tied and dried. To me it's his whole act.
Tweety's still Tweety to me.
I know you disapprove of inciting violence, but wouldn't it be appropriate for talk show hosts to set out guidelines for civil discourse (no shouting, interruptions, etc.) and then terminate interviews when a guest violates the rules.
And then smack the guest on the head with a sock full of manure or something?
Seriously, any talk show that did that would instantly become the most serious and well regarded (if not most watched) show in the country. Plus, a whole bunch of vile human beings would be hit with poop socks. It's a win/win.
Ok, you just made my morning. My daughter mentions 'That means Billo would be smacked with poop socks on his own show!'
;P
I think your daughter is very wise!!! poop socks (tee he he)
I saw this yesterday and thought that perhaps matthews needed some help, although he did well with Ari the jerk.
So I did a Irish mind meld to explode Ari's little brain, but it did not work because he was spewing much too much bile and POOP to make the change happen. This has only happened before with Cheney and most of the FAUX news staff.
Chris it might be nice if you have someone there with a cattle prod for jerks like that.
I'm pretty sure they do that on the Dild O'Lielly show on fox.
But I wouldn't know.
could just do a Billo and turn off the guest's microphone?!
A professional liar and ugly shitbag. Zero accountability. And according to TruthBTold, the Obama adminstration is no different than these blood drinkers...complete bullshit.
all you do is attack the posters instead of proving them wrong. If you don't like what certain posters say, then don't reply. Or can't you read John's policy? Maybe someone can read it to you.
The Bush Administration is clearly the worst in history. To compare the Obama administration to that eight years of wretched hell after fifty days is worst than lying.
Now go fuck off.
LeftandLeft
Your vulgar and less than intelligent last sentence does nothing to disguise the fact that the [alleged] antiwar president of the United States is continuing Bush's murderous policies by launching air strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, resulting in the slaughter of many innocent women and children, despite the fact, as you correctly note, Obama has only been in office a very short period of time. Perhaps Obama is sending a signal that given enough time he can kill just as many innocent people as Bush has done.
"The American people are happy that we no longer have an administration that uses Bush's arguments. We don't like that kind of thinking." Face it...you and your buddies here are fringe.
But Tweety, you called them "good guys"
Except for the ones you called "great."
If Tweety ever has the gall to run for public office, may he be hounded by hundreds of his own Republibutt-kissing little nothings he sighed on national TV.
Look what all your "good guys" did to my country, you obsequious piece of shit.
I think I will put rocks in my poop sock!
oh muh head hurts! no longer uses bushes arguments? iraq and afganistan! further evolution of bushes arguments , the stolen civil rights bush stoled with the help from obamas votes, yeh i see your point lefty ,
LeftandLeft
Time and again you continue to disingenuously claim that I and anyone else who dare to criticize that great fraud and imperialist Barack Obama must bizarrely be a Bush supporter. What you did not do [because you cannot] was refute what I had written 03-12 at 9:53 am. Unfortunately your beliefs are simply symptomatic of so many Obamamaniacs who believe that their [alleged] agent of hope and change [but certainly not to those Afghans and Pakistani families whose loved ones were slaughtered because of Obama's orders] can do no wrong. But facts, as this link proves, have a bad habit of proving those partisan beliefs wrong.
http://www.darianworden.com/pics/votedemocrat...
It is also very likely that Bush is extremely happy with the direction that Obama has taken since it mirrors Bush's murderous foreign policy. The irony is that you call yourself a leftist while a true leftist would realize that Obama is as much of an imperialist as was Bush and Cheney.
Where in my post today did I equate your anti-Obama soul mates to supporting Dubya? I did call them fringe. Can you make your point minus exaggerations?
LeftandLeft
My point, which I have attempted to state, and which you continue to ignore, is that Obama is just as much of a warmonger as Bush was, as evidenced by the many Afghans and Pakistanis who have already been slaughtered under Obama's very brief tenure inn office. Or do their lives not count because they are not American? That is hardly an exaggeration since Obama, that [alleged] antiwar president, has already shown that he is willing to kill brown people with alacrity and without remorse.
You seem to think that this is a game. The people of Afghanistan and Pakistan fervently wish that they were not pawns in Obama's malevolent and deadly game.
L&L -
As an outside observer of this exchange, I wanted to tell you that when you said
I took it as charging that Erroll is a Bush supporter. That's how it reads. If that's not what you meant, you need to clarify.
On another point, I don't know that someone who in his preceding two comments on this thread used the phrases "complete bullshit," "wretched hell," and "go fuck off" is in much of a position complain about another's exaggerations.
Obama campaigned as a Hawk, so the fact that he continues US imperialist policies should not come as a surprise to anyone. The other most Hawkish Democratic Presidential candidate is now Secretary of State.
If you wanted our troops home, you should have voted for Kucinich. If you wanted universal health care you should have voted for Kucinich. If you wanted criminals to be held accountable for their crimes you should have voted for Kucinich. If you wanted your constitutional rights protected you should have voted for Kucinich.
But unfortunately, the media controls who gets elected. Most people don't even know that Kucinich ran for President. He was given minimal exposure by the press and stifled at the debates.
I certainly don't agree with much of what Obama has done, but I get some comfort in knowing that Obama is at least better than the nightmare alternative of having McCain as President at this critical time.
OliverDreams
I think it is instructive to note, as Congressman Kucinich pointed out when he ran for president, that voting for the lesser of two evils still brings to power an evil as the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan can readily acknowledge as being true, as their loved ones were being ripped apart by 500 lb. American bombs that were dropped by the U.S. Air Force under orders of that [alleged] antiwar president, Barack Obama.
AmericaInc., is a HAWK, period. Always has been, always will be!! Nothing more need be said. (A voice from outside the Empire.)
I love Fleischer's indignation, as though he were entitled to go on TV and repeat nonsense about Bush without being challenged.
Notice how Dubya henchmen Fleischer, Rice, Cheney, Rumsfield, etc. all lie throughout their interviews without interruption while ignoring the interviewer's questions?
Tweety should ask about Murder Inc 1600 Pennsylvania ave run out of Boss Cheneys office. Then we'll see some sputtering.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Hersh_US_has_be...
Congrats, Ari, you got the face you deserve.
As Jon Stewart would say: FUCK YOU!
You see, anthrax attacks through the mail never happened, because Republicans don't want to mention it.
Ari proves that the Republicans can only respond to 9/11 by bringing up Clinton. The only changed that has changed with Republicans is that they've gone from blaming Clinton for everything and now blame Obama.
..for about 10 days and then we were hit with Anthrax. Yeah, they never mention that.
DC Sniper case and also the Ohio freeway shooter.
Keeping us safe?
Who kept us safe from the corruption of Bushco?
Certainly it was not Bushco.
The economy sucks, people are out of work and losing thier homes, government is corrupted, and there are 2 needless wars on the books. Oh, and millions can't even afford basic healthcare.
I feel real safe!
Col. Klink can go fuck himself.
Let's not forget how safe Bushco allowed the food supply to become.
How safe pet food was......how safe lead painted toys are.......how safe all those people in NOLA were.
I found this fascinating to watch...I think Matthews was taken aback to see Fleischer repeating the bald-faced lies of the Bushie Era...and actually he pulled his punches and let Fleischer talk over him.
And didn't react at all to Fleischer's saying that we didn't get "attacked by Saddam again."
Matthews had probably persuaded himself that the "good guys" weren't really as craven evil as they've proven to be right to the end of Bush's term and beyond, that it was "politics" and the game that is not beanbag and they could all get together in the pub and swap stories.
And he was visibly stunned by Fleischer's perpetuation of the lies.
No wonder the Bushies live in gated communities.
Methinks Matthews needs to borrow a copy of The Gingerbread Boy and brush up on it.
I've begun to recognize the sheer genius of Chris Matthews these days so I have to wonder if his being "taken aback" was legitimate based on some kind of idol worship of Ari OR was he feigning shock merely to permit Ari to put his neck in a noose of his own creation?
There is no doubt that Ari made a total jackass of himself by spewing lies in the faces of those who can discern fact from fiction because we've all "lived it". This is a given.
But beyond that....the fact that Fleisher was totally out of spin when faced with the fact that 911 occurred on "bush's watch" and all he could say was "How dare you"???? This coming from a man whose motor mouth runs faster than his brain?
This was a HUGE win for MSNBC and Matthews per se. I belive he's becoming masterful at the fine art of "self-evisceration" if you ask me.
Keep it up Chris!
Nothing short of flawless, Matthews, once again, permits a bloviating liar to "hang himself" in the public arena. You'd think that Ari would be smarter than that but, alas, we see that he's just a very pedestrian and pathological liar of the garden variety.
His laughing and smirking throughout was disgusting to all who witnessed it. Ari Fleisher's reputation is not "in the gutter" following this sociopathic "rant" yesterday. No one will have an iota of respect for this man now - we've all watched him "spin" and "lie" in our faces.
But here's the real "crux" of what Ari et al are attempting to do other than to keep their sorry asses out of prison for what they've done to this country, that is: They, once again, have miscalculated the "time table" for recreating fiction from whole cloth. Just as they "gamed the system" for collapse which backfired in their faces by collapsing a tad too early, they are speaking to people who experienced the Bush Regime's criminality firsthand.
You have to wait at least two decades before attempting to recreate history, Ari. Too many of us were throwing tomatoes at the television screen at you as you, shamelessly, attempted to lie in our faces.
I really wish Matthews had had time - or made time - to remind Mr. Fleischer that Saddam didn't attack us the FIRST time... other than that, it was good to watch.
I have always loved KO's comments about how Cheney was going on talking about "(.....)...Defending the country against further terrorist attacks like 9/11: I think is a major accomplishment, for example." (in a video)
Olbermann replied: "(.....)...For the last time, your task was not to deal with the aftermath of 9/11, it was to PREVENT 9/11."(..)
In "9/11: Press For Truth" one of the original "Jersey Girls", Lori Van Auken shows the copies of the COMPLETE August 6, 2001 PDB in which it shows that it was indeed mentioned just 'where' those attacks were planned..."Washington, and the World Trade Center", among other places. There is so much brought out in that documentary, but no one who would be able to really get out the information, will take the time to watch it.
I have always wondered what happened to the article in the Chicago Tribune on October 16 (17), 2001 (could never get the link to work) where when Bush was informed that we were 'under attack', Ari was to have held out a hand-written note saying: "Don't say anything now".
Fleischer has all sorts of accolades in that article in the February issue of Vanity Fair...that I was so hoping would be brought out in force....interesting reading, that stuff is. Especially Wilkerson talking about having to 'cherry-pick information for Condi to use at the 9/11 white---Commission in order to 'show' the commission the Bush Adm had been (ahem) interested in al Qaeda....
Matthews needs to have Wilkerson on. Anyone have a link where I can directly email Matthews? Nothing I find seems to work, not even the link to msnbc..I don't want them to 'forward' anything because I don't think they do.
ari kept trying to link 9/11 and saddam and chris never said diddly.
In Tweety's defense, that was just a fraction of the shitstorm of lies Fleischer spewed in those segments. It's hard to catch 100 cats falling out of a tall building on fire without missing a few. (Now I HAVE used that phrase before!)
Not a fan of Tweety's by any means, just sayin'.
SHUT THE FUCK UP! Sort of wish Tweety would have gone O'Really on his ass.
ari fleischer is a bat$#!+ crazy zionist supremacist who ought to be placed on trial, with the rest of them, for trying to incite an illegal, preemptive war with iran.
I totally agree with you. It is the truth.
Reslug liars, like Ari, are so obvious, spitting all over the place and spewing complete nonsense when all Americans can see through his bullshit about Dumbya.
corner weighing in at . . . .
these guys oughta' shouda' coulda' . . . .
delivers a vicious right jab and staggers Matthews . . . what a fight!!
must be unraveled with the same fervor we unravel christian fundamentalism, islamic fanaticism, or, for that matter, dogmatic atheism.
DOGMA SUCKS.
The threat of Saddam is gone and as a result in no small way it helped destroy the global economy back to 1930’s depression levels. Neither Fleischer nor Mathews seem to realize our housing bubble took off after 9/11 when the stock markets faltered. We should have crashed then but were not allowed to thanks to Bush's ego trying to save face to Bin Laden. We just couldn’t have Bin Laden see that he could hurt our economy now could we, down went interest rates to stupid levels and the orgy was on.
The economy was in trouble in 2000 it was what Bush rode in on as an election campaign issue where the national debt was the number one issue facing America according national polls. After 9/11 it wasn’t even a foot note in the Bush presidency. You see we haven’t even paid off Vietnam yet and as I said in the start of Iraq War, Bush played war like novice card player plays poker. He threw all our military cards on the table. All the axis of evil doers he talked about had to do was sit back, take cards, up the ante, wait, and call. It cost them nothing while were throwing hundreds of billions out the door and foolishly lowering taxes at a time of war. So we traded one dire risk to our country for another risk that threatens the world. IED - Improvised Exploding Debt.
I think I’ll borrow a Jon Stewart analysis to Fleischer, F**K YOU!
...(and that is usually due to my own shortcomings), your posts still rip. This one is no different.
our housing bubble took off after 9/11 when the stock markets faltered
That's actually a good point. When the stock market stumbled, investors looking a a good place to make a buck turned more to real estate, which lead to artificially inflated home values and we were off and running.
It's not that he's disingenuous, Ari, it's just that he's saying your words.
what i find is that its so obvious who planned and carried out the 911 attacks for thier own advantages and chenys furthering plans to surpress iraqs oil from the market place to produce 4 dollar a gallon gas was the isralie mossad plans and opperations unit , demolition units and it was done with cia mossad infiltrated personel ,
You know the federal government that killed thousands upon thousands, and killed and maimed over 5000 of their own GIs in the Middle East, would never stoop so low as to kill American citizens. Why that's just conspiracy! /snark
yes i know!concerned its certainly unthinkable that someone like cheny would be involved in murder, had they destroyed the whitehouse and the pentagon and the hall of congess i might have come to a different conclusion, but two worthless buildings that were white elephants loaded with asbestos ,looseing money from low tenant use , very much sugests expendable targets!
besides concerned what does it really matter that mossad were used for that day ? thiers to much good junk to make fun of and show off our comic tallents with such as makeing jokes of fat bastards like limpballs ann colter , criss matthews , no body ever sees the man behind the curtain , they dont pull it back to look!
The only thing most folks have yet to discover is who was orchestrating it - and it sure as hell wasn't Saddam or Osama.
of course it was a conspiracy , i laid it out in a short version ,the long verson takes ......much lomger!the comment on cheny was a snark
and I knew it about 2 weeks after 9/11 as I'd read the PNAC
Defense Strategy for the 21st Cent. before it occurred.
As soon as Bush started yelling about invading Iraq and the talk-up to the war started - and after I'd seen about a hundred hours of videos and photos on the web - I was pretty sure it was Cheney's New Pearl Harbor we had witnessed.
a thinking person can if they bother see the culprits of 911, the motive , to draw american troops into israels battles for supremesy in the mid east , the other to supress iraqs cheaper oil on the world market , uss liberty , was a mossad opperation, to draw america into the mid east for israels sake, oppertunity , access to america and its isralie backed mossad cells and government officials , the wizzard of oz would be proud !
it's much bigger than just an Israeli thing per se.
It' more about the supremacy of the elitists who control the international financial cabal - which would certainly include those who control/support Israel. The never-ending war mode makes it a lot easier for our wealth and way of life to be stolen.
Fear is a powerful motivator -
follow the money! its in the banks in telavive! listed under zionest assets!
Now we discover that Cheney had secret ops killing people in foreign countries. What's next? Maybe we're getting to the crux of it all - that 911 was an inside job by Cheney, too?
This may be a little closer to the truth: http://www.strike-the-root.com/91/butler/butl...
Actually, Tweety pretty much got pwned during the exchange. Sure, he got Fleischer on a few things, such as the Iraq mushroom cloud/nuclear issue, but overall his performance was an epic FAIL.
Here's why:
1) He couldn't respond to Fleisher's claim "How dare you...if we get attacked again, will you say that we got attacked on Barack Obama's watch?" with, "hell yes, and we will hold his administration accountable for it, look into the facts and the Presidential briefs, instead of giving him a free pass like we did to the Bush administration."
2) He tried to argue that Fleischer's 2003 admission that "we went into Iraq based on faulty intelligence...we were wrong" was the same thing as admitting that the Bush administration's push for the Iraq war was "dishonest." Rather than breaking out the information on the yellowcake bullshit documents, he continued to get his ass handed to him by Fleisher. (even providing a mea culpa, "thanks for the correction."
3) Fleisher disarmed Tweety midstream with, "Do you ever not interrupt your guests?" Which is a SLAP on Tweety's constantly-interrupting-the-guest FACE. He is a terrible interviewer and needs to STFU while his guests speak.
4) Fleisher sums up his argument by saying, "...but after September 11th, having been hit once, how could we take a chance that Saddam might not strike again."
...and Matthews says, "Okay, I'm glad that we no longer have an administration that uses that kind of argument."
That statement, while dismissive of Fleischer's INANE linking of Saddam and 9/11, was pure milquetoast compared to the response that he should have given:
"ARI FLEISHER, HOW DARE YOU come on my show and attempt to link Saddam Hussein to the attacks on 9/11. Dick Cheney tried his darndest to make this stick and the American People WOULD NOT SWALLOW THIS LIE! They still won't. It's this type of blatant dishonesty, systemic in the Bush Administration, of which you were a critical part, that should ultimately result in a trip to the Hague for many of the top officials to be put on trial for war crimes."
Matthews realizes how his permission and low-key approach actually works against these revisionists, racists, and professional bloviators.
It's also brought negative attention back to the Bush era crimes and who may be culpable.
I don't think you're giving Chris enough credit here. Chris's face told the tale and Fleisher looked like a classless moron.
I agree, this was hardly a smackdown. Ari is just too good at being glib and slimy and he is smarter than Chris. Ari was never unsettled and he always had an answer, often putting Matthews on the defensive. Ari held a steady gaze into the camera, whereas you could see Matthews looking down each time Ari hit him back, as if in search for a counter-comeback to Ari's comebacks.
It doesn't count as a smackdown if one merely tries to stand up to an asshole. It only counts if you manage to shut the asshole down.
I watched this interviw last night and kept asking myself does Mathews really think that Fleisher will appologize for or admit to any mistakes by the Bush administration. As to the argument that Bush kept us safe from another 9/11 type attack I would like to add my opinion. Our presence in Iraq presented the opportunity for Islamic extremest to attack us in their own back yard. They had no need to travel thousands of miles to the US and deal with our border security which was beefed up after 9/11. They were/are able to pass through Iraq's unguarded borders from a host of unfriendly nations and attack our soldiers with impunity while receiving support from Iraq's anti-US citizens. It is just too easy an opportunity for the extremest to pass up.
You git it you lazy assed loser!
Can't baby Matthews is down oh wait he's up!
What was by far the best score of the interview by Matthews was his discussion about WMD replete with clips of the Bushies making statements about mushroom clouds. (Condi Rice and GWB himself).
Ari was non-plussed at this point and all he could say was that they didn't mean "nuclear" WMD. WTF??? Does this man perpetually wear his head up his ass?
Of course, maybe we are not as educated as Ari and somehow those little germie-poos in the Petri dish can create a mushroom cloud by themselves? Could some of the germ or chemical warfare actually be coming from the study of mushrooms?
One this is certain: Ari Fleisher has been a "mushroom in the darkness" of his own creation.
For those criticizing Matthews, can you defend why Olbermann never interviews those who disagree with him? Yes, he has disappointed in the past, but so does everyone else. This is so ridiculous.
On Olbermans show, I think not. I think you have a bad comparison, they are two different folks.
They are different folks, and opinions varies from time to time. The fact is that Matthews has done more damage and showed more courage to conservatives than Olbermann ever dreamed of. One thing is to make comments when you don't have to look at them in the eyes while at it, the other is face to face confrontation, being able to look at someone in the eyes and call them out. What Olbermann does is well accepted by us progressive in general, but falls flat with regular Americans that fluctuate all over the place. Chris Matthews ability to expose and confront such hypocrisy is a lot more efficient.
He's kryptonite to them. They've got plenty of other outlets to hit that might be sympathetic to them. Or as we see here, might not.
to Video Nation after a word from a drug company
... because the Bush Administration thought it'd be an easy win. Topple a tin-pot dictator, sprinkle some magic democracy dust, easy, right? And all our corporate buddies get a slice of the pie, too!
Ignored was the fact that Pakistan had tested, deployable nuclear weapons, and that we were banking on a tin-pot dictator to keep things in order there. No, we went chasing after Saddam's phony WMDs, and even after the lies were laid bare (not that they shouldn't have been apparent to anyone with a modicum of common sense), the media sat there and mooed. Democrats rolled over and begged for a cookie and a pat on the head.
Americans, complacent and dependent on being spoon-fed dumbed-down crap as a substitute for being an informed populace, made this possible. Sure, Ari's a liar - but the fact that he's even given the time of day and a slot on Tweety's calendar means - even with Obama being elected - that we're EXPECTING change, but we want someone else to do the heavy lifting. ("I voted! What more do you want from me?!?!?!")
But looking in the general direction of Washington is like looking at a bum sleeping on a park bench and wondering why nothing's getting done.
aren't allowed in Israel but they were running free all over Iraq before all the news networks started to change their graphics to include waving American flags and Eagles before the Shock and Awe war porno started.
His his sleazy rant, Fleisher mentioned that the UN believed there were WMD. What the hell does that mean? First he says it wasn't WMD of the nuclear type so why were they looking for evidence of the nuclear type in the first place? Ari's fiction falls apart totally in this interview and his total hypocrisy is astounding.
Also if you have ever noticed, Limbaugh et al bash the UN all the time as the evil overlords. So why would the right wingers suddenly believe anything their evil asses have to say? Convenience?
Iam typing ths blingdly as that vide o mademe smash my monitro to pieces . Ari is an asshole and tweety is a complicit mediawhore.
hooked on TV and the Internet, WiFi. . . whatever
It's about time, although somewhat late. It seems that Ari Fleischer and the rest of the Bush enablers are finally being called on their BS. Hopefully, the rest of the MSM will finally stand up to these rightwing nutjobs and call them out for their crimes, misdeeds, and lies to the American people.
Now that Ari Fleisher has been eviscerated publicly, why not throw him on the garbage pile with the rest of the Bush criminals?
I'm getting pretty disgusted with seeing liars and frauds trying to spin us every night - along with the likes of criminals like Tom DeLay and Karl Rove acting as thought they have any credibility left.
It's time to move on once they soil themselves in public and start sending them crates of Depends instead.
Do they supply Depends in prison? Just wonderin'...
I didn't see it as much of a "smackdown" as it should have been, especially when Ari made the bald-faced Saddam+9/11 connection lie. Tweety let that one go by. Fleischer is a lying propagandist.
He said that Bushboy walked into a mild recession that Clinton gave him and equated this somehow with the bank crises of last year. That is so much smack!
..that would make me WANT to have a beer with W. I don't like anything about him. He was an awful President, by all accounts, an awful Governor, a failure in business and just plain stupid (IMHO).
And Fleischer, he can take his revisionist history and shove it where the sun don't shine or Iraq or Afghanistan or New Orleans, for all I care.
I don't know, I'd let him buy enough beers that I would get drunk and beat the shit out of him.
Get him drunk and bring a tape recorder.
that smacktard can go fuck himself.
Wharaloadobutterybuttocks!!!!!!!!
I wonder if the kids at Virginia Tech felt terrorized. Actually I don't wonder. I know they felt terrorized because they were terrorized.
Schools, malls, churches, homes, etc.... A LOT more people would be alive (and safe) if it weren't for Bush.
(Edit: Above sentence is badly worded. Not blaming Bush for domestic wacko terrorists. Just making the point that he didn't keep us safe. And that's not even counting all the soldiers and Iraqis who would be alive today as well.)
In no sense of the word did Bush keep anyone safe.
Still trying to rewrite history even to the point of self humilitation. Smoke these fucktards out into the open, expose all the 8 years of lies, do not let any of it become part of legit history.
Did that piece of garbage Ari just imply that Libya had nuclear weapons? As though the Bush administration's destruction of non-nuclear Iraq made Libya give up their own non-existent nukes? (Never mind that Libya's discarding it's non-specific 'WMD programs' was the result of years of quiet, tough diplomacy with Europe).
One a slightly related note, there must be a wingnut debating school out there somewhere. Ari used a tactic I've seen wingers employ quite often: he drones on with the same banal talking points, often having nothing of import to say (and knowing that time is limited), but when Matthews tries to interrupt him he acts indignant as though Matthews is being rude. However, Ari has no moral difficulty with jumping all over Matthews' statements and questions to try and shout him down with rude interjections and more talking points. You'd think Matthews, for all his abruptness and ability to jump on people's statements, would be able to handle that.
...he stated it as fact.
At the 9:09 mark Fleischer says "...I'd much rather have Libya without its nuclear weapons. I'd much rather have Syria without its nuclear weapons..."
At 9:41, Fleischer says "...was there a war against Libya? The answer is no and Libya no longer has nuclear weapons. They turned them in. They dismantled their program..."
This guy is a fricken liar. Matthews should have called him on that right then.
OMG! Do these Neo-Con bastards EVER take responsibility for ANYTHING? No. They attack the person asking the questions and re-write history.
This is the kind of crap has gone on since the dawn of human history. The ruling class seeks to subjugate the "commoners" by giving them an enemy to focus on (Bin Laden, Al-Qaida, "terrorists") and a hero (George Bush, Repugs *puke*) to fight him. If the commoners question the authoritarian ruler they are denounced for lack of patriotism... (as Hermann Goring noted) Just shut up and die in their wars when told. Your reward will come in Heaven. This is the system our Founding Fathers fought so hard to overcome but some weakness in the human character seems to long for an authoritarian figure to look to... a Republic requires participation and knowledge... which is why the press is so vital to freedom... but our system is now stacked against us. This IS class warfare and THEY are winning as usual.
I wish God would rapture these freaks out of here already so we can all do our best to create a government that works for everyone - without the authoritarian lies of psychopathic wanna-be dictators and their greed-obsessed henchmen.
at least he is spinning better than he did on when he was a white house flack. Funny he still calls Bush his boss? Back on the payrolls?
Whenever Chris Matthews makes the news/blogosphere for tearing into a neocon I check in to C&L, home to his most vehement haters, to see just how far the conversation turns less into the neocon he just eviserated but more into Tweety this and Tweety that. However I was a bit surprised that the usual multitude stayed focused on the topic and not on Matthews' past transgressions. I was even more pleasantly surprised that while the contributor rehashed Matthew's rap sheet that is the bases of this hatred that she didn't stoop to that name calling level.
I know you think he owes you a pound of flesh for saying anything remotely positive about Bush, and that his not voting for Bush in 2004, admitting how huge of a mistake it is for the country to vote for a guy just because you'd like to have a beer with him instead of someone who is learned on history, and being against the Iraq war from the beginning isn't enough to redeem him in your eyes, but a little more civility and a little less of the juvenile commenting was a bit refreshing.
I'm thrilled we met your high standards.
You must not have watched Matthews before the invasion...he did rip into the war pushers. At times he was also swept into the "groupthink
As interesting as this was, I liked Olbermanns take on this video. He suggested that Ari Fleischer may have been stoned.
Fleisher always spins (lies) with arrogance
If were lucky enough to ever see the Bush admin get charges and face trial for war crimes, this interview should be noted so we don't for the role of Mr. Fleischer in spreading propaganda. This interview is case in point about the type of lies and exaggerations he continues to spread in justifying an illegal war. He is so disgraceful and disingenuous that I hope such interviews can be used as evidence against him and more importantly against the whole Bush Admin.
Wed, 03/11/2009 - 20:41 — Kathleen
Ari Fleisher ..Defending the Bush Legacy
By: Leen Wednesday March 11, 2009 6:18 pm
0
diggs
digg it
Chris Matthews and Ari Fleisher really wrestled tonight. Chris Matthews actually came out and said "we were attacked on your watch"
I sure have been waiting for someone in the MSM to come out and say this. The truth! (remember these folks ignored Richard Clarke's warnings
Ari Fleisher was spinning a mile a minute. He said that Cheney only said that Iraq had nuclear weaapons once.
Hope Fact Check goes through this interview.
Watch and listen to Ari Lie
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#29642334
replyReply
Leen March 11th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
2
Quotes about WMD’s
Ari claimed that he never said that Iraq had WMD’s
Mar. 21, 2004
Ari Fleischer:”Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes.”
Ari Fleisher claimed that Cheney only claimed that Saddam had WMD’s once before the invasion
Weapons of Mass Destruction’ Quotes
http://zfacts.com/p/581.html
Ari “Dick Cheney made a mistake on one Sunday show and he took it back”
Aug. 26, 2002
Dick Cheney, Vice President
“Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.”
Quotes by the Bush administration about WMD’s
http://www.geocities.com/jacksonthor/lieswmd....
During Matthews interview with Fleisher…Fleisher also said “We always said that he (Saddam) did not have nuclear I”(Fleisher) repeatedly said that”
This liar should be tarred and feathered. People are dead dead because of their "pack of lies" Then Fleisher comes out and rubs the publics nose in more lies
Fact Checker should rake this guy over the coals for these lies
As the mouthpiece for criminal activity committed by the Bush administration Fleisher is just as responsible for those acts. He should be hauled before a Congressional hearing, be placed under oath and testify. Then he should be indicted.
dropped down in the middle of Baghdad butt ass naked along with Cheney, Feith, Bush etc. Let them run for a hole in the ground in Iraq.
Cheney should be sentenced to pedaling a stationary bike linked to Iraq's power grid. If he's well enough to hurt his back moving boxes, he can pedal a bike.
Bush should be tied to a chair with his head forced back and his mouth pried open. Place this chair under the worst of the sewage drips leaking from the ceiling in the police academy that Parsons Corp. built.
Not sure what to do with Dougie.
Bushevik regime was a text-book case (abetted, willingly, bu the SCUM).
Done correctly, it never fails...
What you have not posted here is how many times Matthews has ripped into the David Frums, Bill Kristol's, Cheney etc. He has ripped into these thugs before the invasion and after. If you have not heard Matthews do this you have not listened to his show
uf he really 'reported,' or criticized, he'd never get those yummy elite canapes again...
...about Saddam attacking us "again" left me stunned. How intellectually dishonest and morally bankrupt does one have to be to continue to try to push that crap. It used to be that the GOP would just spin, or selectively report, or manipulate, or shade the truth but it seems lately that they have decided to just go whole hog and flat out lie. How I would hate to have to walk in their karmic shoes.
This asshole will say anything knowing the 29%ers still believe him. That was terrible, he clearly has no respect for the American people.
and why should he ?the american people will fall for any ponzy scheam ! thier truely was a sucker born evey twenty minutes!
That many still believe that shite?
...to the end. Fleischer is far more evil than stupid. He knows that their are some who still believe Sadaam attacked us.
and to tell it like it is americans have lost interest in the real reasons , the real culprits , anyone being brought to justice , tyree grabs that louisville slugger and reduces his brain cells bashing in his skull so its scaled back to the intelligence of the average unthinking american,
... Tweety for his ongoing denigration of the Clintons and his fawning, gushing treatment of Bush (especially after the aircraft carrier stunt) and Aqua-Velva Fred Thompson.
The guy's bipolar and has some serious issues regarding both men and women. He's loud, annoying, abrasive, irritating and self-absorbed.
If you ask me, he should have outright called Ari the Dissembler a LIAR and told him to unhook his mic.
Tweety? Pfffff .....
Ari should get the same sentence as Tariq Aziz.
Hardball is the outlet.
Bush kept us safe...for 9 months and ten days.
Here is another absurd statement (lie) that Ari spewed
Matthews "if you knew he was warned directly that and attack was coming"
Fleisher "first all of it wasn't warned directly, it was one of those vague warnings that Al Queda wants to attack inside the U.S."
How many times did Richard Clarke warn the Bush administration?
Richard Clarke with Larry King
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yRjSOyyZic&fe...
Richard Clarke on 60 minutes
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=81422...
Here is Clarke on 60 minutes
"Clarke's testimonials are, in a word, bizarre. In his own world, Clarke was the hero who warned Bush administration officials about Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda ad nauseam. The Bush administration, in Clarke's world, just didn't care. In Clarke's world, eight months of Bush administration counterterrorism policy is more important than eight years of Clinton administration counterterrorism policy.
"He's creating this new reality to cover his own legacy of failure," says one senior Bush administration official."
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/...
Fvck you Fliescher you piece of sh!t.
Something about the anthrax attacks that were never resolved and where people actually died, the wire tapping of American Citizens, the yellow and orange alerts, the constant warnings at airports, the suspension of habeas corpus, and the secrecy of the administration made me feel unsafe for seven years. Oh yea, attacking Iraq when they had nothing to do with the attack on the WTC also didn't help feel safe.
"Beyond Fear" by Bruce Schneier. Schneier is a computer security expert and a vocal critic of 'security theater' like the threat rainbow and no-fly lists.
yeah...GW Bush had sunny nobility...he was the sonny of the Bush nobility...that's his claim to fame.
I think Ari is like most neocons and can't tell Sunny from Shitty.
Bush certainly has the reverse-Midas touch going.
Amazing that your post turned Matthews attempts to smack Fleisher down into an attack on Matthews. Look I don't always like what Matthews has to say (his job is not to make us happy) and he does play many sides. But it is bullshit to just point out when Matthews has kissed ass. Matthews questioned the intelligence before the war and he hammered those who were pushing the false intelligence. He also seemed confused (part of the groupthink" wondering whether they did have legitimate intelligence about WMD's
I appreciate that Chris Matthews was the first mainstreamer to ever say "we were attacked on your watch" Damn straight. The Bush administration ignored counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke several times.
I appreciate Matthews whacking Fleisher on the endless "pack of lies" that the Bush administration jammed down the American public throat about WMD's in Iraq
During that interview the only thing that Matthews said that really got under my skin was what matthews said about Iran.
"and now we face Ahmadnejad in Iran with no buffer in the region, no threat to his power, no counter power to him, he's all alone over there as a main threat to our country"
------------------------------------------------------------
What the fuck Matthews just played right into that Iran has threatened us bullshit. Iran has never threatened us. The things that Ahamadenjad has said about Israel have been misrepresented by those who want to pre-emptlvely attack Iran (Ari and the gang). Professor Juan Cole has directly translated what Ahmadenjad has said about Israel
"The precise reason for Hitchens' theft and publication of my private mail is that I object to the characterization of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as having "threatened to wipe Israel off the map." I object to this translation of what he said on two grounds. First, it gives the impression that he wants to play Hitler to Israel's Poland, mobilizing an armored corps to move in and kill people.
But the actual quote, which comes from an old speech of Khomeini, does not imply military action, or killing anyone at all. The second reason is that it is just an inexact translation. The phrase is almost metaphysical. He quoted Khomeini that "the occupation regime over Jerusalem should vanish from the page of time." It is in fact probably a reference to some phrase in a medieval Persian poem. It is not about tanks."
http://www.juancole.com/2006/05/hitchens-hack...
Israel has directly threatened to attack Iran..directly threatened them. And we have encircled Iran.
I HAVE DIRECTLY ASKED CHRIS MATTHEWS (AT THE DEM CONVENTION) TO HAVE PROFESSOR JUAN COLE ON HIS PROGRAM. IF MATTHEWS IS WILLING TO GIVE AIR TIME TO A COMPULSIVE LIAR ABOUT WHAT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION SAID ABOUT WMD'S. WHY NOT GIVE AIR TIME TO PROFESSOR JUAN COLE WHO WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE VALIDITY OF THE PRE-WAR INTELLIGENCE AND SO MUCH MORE
COME ON MATTHEWS GIVE SOME AIR TIME TO JUAN COLE, FLYNNT LEVERETT, ETC WE ARE TIRED OF HEARING FROM THE LIARS
... the basic political reality. Iraq was a Shiite majority country under the rule of a Sunni dictator. We deposed that dictator and saw to it that the Ba'ath Party could not hold office.
So now we have a Shiite majority country, and the closest Shiite country is IRAN. Knowing that religion and politics are closely linked in the Middle East, even a democracy would give us a Shiite state that would turn to a neighbor that shares the same faith.
So, who's to blame for IRAN being a threat to the region, again?
I don't know why any host lets someone come on, radio or tv, and lets them filibuster like Fleischer does here. Republicans are particularly prone to this crap: they HAVE to keep talking, because if the other side gets a word in edgewise their arguments come tumbling down. I expect better of Matthews. "Hardball"...sheeeesh.
Fleischer. Mealy-mouthed shitmonger in a suit.
Still listening to this clip and this fucking ASSHOLE hasn't shut his fucking mouth for more than 10 seconds the entire time. THEN WHINES ABOUT BEING INTERRUPTED???
HATE modern republicans. HATE THEM. Why? Because they hate everybody who isn't them. This behavior is just one more bit of evidence of that fact.
Edit:
DONE. Not wasting another second listening to this garbage mouth. Got through maybe 3/5s of this interview. Thanks, C&L, for posting it. I don't want to seem ungrateful or critical. This is only about that shiny-topped Bushbot.
Sure hope one of the fact check groups pick this up
..to the whole interview, well most of it. I would like to smack this lying sack of poop silly for being such an incredible liar. I wish LYING was a crime, a felony not even a misdemeanor, just so we could put the lying sack of poop in jail. My stars, where has this "person" been? Either he's in complete or utter denial or he's been living in a cave. What a tool!
Mr. Fleischer, please put a cork in your mouth! You are a liar! You hear, LIAR, LIAR, please go away!
What an idiot!
but Ari doesn't look too healthy, like he might have a case of colon cancer coming on. They can't seem to perform colectomy on these Bush press secretaries because it would require ripping out their throats.
That seems to be the only thing that might shut these propagandists the hell up, except they'd probably find some way of talking through their shit bags, which they are already experts at.
What a duplicitous snake Fleischer is. He should be in Gitmo with the rest of the traitorous Repug scum.
And his flag pin's too small, fuckin' Commie.
Nice job, Heather. It's astounding anyone ever found him charming, because he's such a scumbag, and not even that good a liar.
Global warming is and was a greater threat than terrorism. Bush did nothing about global warming, therefore he DID NOT keep us safe. The phony economy was a greater threat than terrorism, yet Bush did nothing to fix that false economy; in fact, he made it worse. Therefore, Bush DID NOT keep us safe. The two biggest problems of his presidency, and he failed to even acknowledge either of them. Therefore, it is a bald-face LIE that Bush kept us safe. Bush in fact ignored the greatest threats to us.
UP IS DOWN
BLACK IS WHITE
NOTHING IS WHAT IT IS
TIME TO KICK DOWN THE CARDS,
ALICE
STEP THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS!!!!
Jesus Christ, that liar says Libya no longer has nuclear weapons because they "turned them in." LIBYA NEVER HAD NUCLEAR WEAPONS, YOU FUCKING LIAR. These people say whatever they want without regard for its truth. They are either the stupidest people or the biggest liars, I'm not sure which. Or utterly insane.
and corrected him. Amazing indeed.
what are we argueing here folks? that thier are fith collums in our news whores stations spouting disinformation !propaganda ? confusion? the real answers lie in the original lie 911, whats the use of tweeking these twitts noses without delveing into the real story , its just so much spinning your trucks wheels on a patch of ice!
and seen how much she feels forced to thank any right wing douchebag that comes on her show?
She has to treat them with kid gloves no matter how inane/insane they are so as not to scare the rest away.
THAT is why you don't see Olbermann interviewing the other side. They are too scared to come on his show.
With matthews, because he's in love with delay and his ilk, the right wing douchebags don't know what they are going to get and choose to risk it.
edit: reply to nyguy @7:35
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