The administration begins to crack

I think the phrase that best describes what Ari is doing would be “Spinning out of control”

I almost can picture Ari getting the morning info that he has to spin, doing a quick couple of shots involving 12,000 proof alcohol, and growling “bring it” in his best Bruce Campbell.

Maybe he somtimes substitutes “is this all you got?” for bring it.

TPM:

Some military jets are equipped with the ability to toss off a cluster of flares in mid-flight to throw off heat-seeking missiles. I think that’s what Ari Fleischer and the White House were doing yesterday when they admitted that the president’s State of the Union claims about Iraq buying uranium in Africa were wrong.

That’s a separate argument, I guess. The UN said he had the weapons. Maybe you know something they don’t.

I mean, I agree that Fleischer worded the whole thing badly, which is pretty inexcusable for a White House Press Secretary. And I certainly agree that the Administration is backpedalling in an attempt to reduce the impact of not finding WMD and the damaging revelations about how they lied to the public. But it’s untrue and unfair to pretend that the Administration has suddendly decided that the WMD have been found unless someone proves otherwise.

Excellent!

Fleischer’s had to spout so much outright malarkey that It’s no wonder he’s quitting. If Mordor had been a democracy, the Mouth of Sauron would have quit too.

Now that was funny.

Just for funsies, Ari Fleischer used “revisionist” again in today’s briefing:

“This revisionist notion that somehow this is now the core of why we went to war, a central issue of why we went to war, a fundamental underpinning of the president’s decisions, is a bunch of bull.”

I think this was his last day. He should have said that it was “a bunch of bullshit and so are you fuckers! So long!” Flipped the room off and walked out.