Maybe the Decider will hire Ari back.
- tom moody 4-19-2006 6:07 pm

"ill do the deciderin' around here and dooon't you forgeet eet!""


- bill 4-19-2006 6:15 pm

theyll just find another drone to lie. nothing exciting about firing the publicist, unless you have a personal animus for this particular flop sweater.
- dave 4-19-2006 6:36 pm

Ari leaving was a much happier occasion, because he was a bigger prick.
- tom moody 4-19-2006 6:50 pm

ari may still get his for knowingly lying about plame.
- bill 4-20-2006 12:49 am

The sun would come out and the birds would sing if that happened. We can but hope.
- tom moody 4-20-2006 12:59 am

This reaction wasn't all that surprising. McClellan has been a favored punching bag for journalists, as well as critics of the administration, since practically the minute he took over from the hacktacular Ari Fleischer. McClellan stepped up to the podium in the White House briefing room every day and relentlessly pounded away at the administration's talking points ("we don't comment on ongoing investigations," "we're here to do the business of the American people," "September 11th," etc.); as Seabrook put it, he "had the job of being 'Washington Jerk No.1.' His whole raison d'etre was to obfuscate, squelch, conceal and mask the truths reporters sought." To make things even more embarrassing, he was never actually an integral part of crafting these talking points or the administration's broader media strategy -- tasks which were primarily carried out by Dan Bartlett and Rove. McClellan's lack of any real verbal dexterity, moreover, was striking; he was never all that comfortable in front of cameras, and the man simply did not have an easy way with words. Christopher Hitchens summed things up nicely several months ago: "I'm not the only person in Washington who wonders every day how that guy got that job. I mean, it's an insult to the intelligence of everyone who has to listen to him."

Was he really all that bad? For supporters of the administration, McClellan must have been a godsend: His affectless, near-catatonic stare was the perfect representation of the contempt with which the White House regards the press, and the less information he gave to them, the better. For those of us who hold the controversial position that the President (or his press secretary) has an obligation to be honest about what the country's leader is up to, McClellan was not much of an improvement over the supremely arrogant Fleischer. But to fully understand McClellan, you had to understand that this was a man who was fundamentally and consistently out of the loop. Yes, he was routinely sent to the briefing room with half-truths and lies, but McClellan's tragic earnestness revealed that, on most occasions, he actually bought the spin that the White House was putting out. Flawed and inept as McClellan was, his obliviousness was ultimately his most consistent feature.